INTERVIEW
The images were widely shared a month ago: crowded hypermarkets, empty shelves, full carts, endless queues ... Before the official start of the confinement imposed to fight against the coronavirus, Tuesday, March 17, medium and large supermarkets were stormed. By reflex? For fear of a shortage of essential products, no doubt. This is what is said in the last issue of Tout compte fait , broadcast on Saturday on France 2 at 3:45 pm, for which the journalist Julian Bugier was the guest of Philippe Vandel on Europe 1, Friday.
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More an issue of "slices of life" than of investigation, this version of Tout compte fait focuses on the panic movements that took place from March 9 to 17. "We wondered how the crisis would impact consumer behavior and whether we should fear a food shortage, or tensions on stocks," says Julian Bugier. "We found that purchases of food products increased first by 6 to 10% during the first days, and then by 240% Monday March 16, the day of the announcement of the containment."
"Irrational" Behaviors
During this health crisis, the behavior of people who had amassed large stocks of food was strongly criticized. "It's completely irrational, the lady buys 15 packs of pasta," said the journalist about a customer of a hypermarket followed in the program. "People buy 50 liters of milk, 50 liters of water, they stock up when there is no subject of shortage. This is what we show through the subject: there there was no shortage of food or toilet paper. (…) There is no risk "for the future," he says.
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"The food chain held up thanks to the little hands, the invisible ones of everyday life, which are the delivery men, the cashiers, the truck drivers," insists the journalist. "It is to all these people that we wanted to pay tribute", as this truck driver forced to stay in his cabin since cafes and restaurants in highway areas are closed: "We are supposedly one of those who are going to save the Nation, but we are working as in the 1940s or 1950s ", he tells the team of the France 2 show.