INTERVIEW
These are images that we have seen all over the world: supermarket shelves robbed. This phenomenon also affects France. With the ambient psychosis caused by the coronavirus epidemic, some are afraid of running out and stock up on pasta, rice or baby diapers ... The big brands promised to anticipate before the weekend to avoid the shelves empty, but it is clear that they have still been taken by surprise by consumers in certain regions.
"Once again, the departments most affected by this frenzy are pasta, rice, flour", notes at the microphone of Europe 1 Olivier Dauvers, specialist in mass distribution and author of the blog "Le web Grande Conso". "It was enough to walk around the store on Saturday to see that the carts were a little fuller than usual and the shelves of these products a little empty," he said.
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An essentially Ile-de-France phenomenon
"Objectively, there is no risk of shortage if we look at the situation as a whole," wishes to reassure this expert. "This does not mean that there will not be, on occasion, a department that will be permanently out of stock. But distributors and manufacturers have a lot of inventory."
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Indeed, if the shelves are empty, it is because sales exceed the capacity of supermarket reserves, which, however, does not yet mean that manufacturers are exceeded by demand. "The warehouses are full, the stores are replenished regularly, but as consumers buy more than the storage capacity of the stores, mechanically, almost every night, there are breaks in the shelves," he explains. .
"This situation of 'overbought' is essentially the fact of the Paris region, as we were more afraid there than elsewhere," concludes Olivier Dauvers.