This Wednesday, March 15 marks the launch of the “anti-inflation quarter” announced by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, a week earlier. This scheme aims to offer “the lowest possible price” on a selection of “hundreds” of products for three months. Affected products will be marked with the “anti-inflation quarter” logo: a blue shopping cart surrounded by a red coat of arms.
As our colleagues from BFMTV report, Bruno Le Maire wants the anti-inflation quarter to be a “massive, effective and protective device” to fight against rising food prices. To ensure the commitment of the supermarkets, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF) will carry out checks to verify “that it is indeed on the margins of the distributors that the lowest possible prices.
Unlike the common anti-inflation basket project formulated last December, the choice of products and their prices is up to each major retailer participating in the operation. Prices might even vary from region to region.
According to Alexandre Bompard, CEO of Carrefour, the reductions will mainly concern “our private labels” (reported by Capital). This choice of private labels is explained by the greater freedom of supermarkets to trim their margins on them. The device, financed thanks to the margins of the distributors, will cost them “several hundred million euros”.
Scheduled for a period of 100 days, the anti-inflation quarter should allow households to lighten their shopping budget. If some did not want to join the device, like Cora and Leclerc, most of the big brands played the game. Which supermarkets are involved in the device?
