According to INSEE, the month of March shows a general price increase of 5.6% over one year. Households are particularly affected by the rise in the cost of energy but also by that of food products. Prices rose by 15.8% on average in March in food departments.
In this context of declining purchasing power, new discount brands are multiplying. Since Sunday April 9, 2023, a new store has opened its doors in Piscop (Val-d’Oise): Prix’Miam. According to Le Parisien, this brand offers meat and charcuterie, coming “directly from cooperatives or manufacturers”, at “prices well below traditional trade”.
A welcome initiative with the general increase in prices. According to a study conducted by L’Observatoire Cetelem, with Harris Interactive and Toluna, 69% of French people have given up certain food shopping in the last 12 months. 50% of respondents even reveal having given up meat.
Our colleagues from Le Parisien met the activity manager for the region of the Calidel group, owner of Prix’Miam: Arnaud Pupille. According to him, “there is such an inflation on food products – especially meat and charcuterie – that some are moving away from it strictly because of the prices. Our prices can bring customers back. At our level, modestly, we limit this shock.”
According to Le Parisien, in the refrigerated containers of Prix’Miam, there are batches of grilled pork at 6.60 euros per kilo, trays of two pork chops at 2 euros or even andouillette de Troyes at less than 10 euros. How does the Calidel Group manage to practice such prices in the midst of inflation?
“Some products have expiry dates that are too short for traditional trade, others are the result of overproduction, destocking”, explains Arnaud Pupille, activity manager for the region, to Parisian. Prices are sometimes halved even though the products are of high quality. “These are not products that have wandered from stores to warehouses but come directly from cooperatives or manufacturers, with a respected cold chain.”
This is the case, for example, of products whose presentation prevents them from being sold in traditional shops. Arnaud Pupille indicates, for a dried beef cut irregularly, “we sell it at almost half the usual price.”
For six months, the Calidel group has already opened several similar stores in Brittany and in the Great West. Discover in the slideshow below in which cities are these low-cost and anti-waste stores.
