- Some internet users have the feeling that prices charged in large and medium-sized stores have been increasing since the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Fruits and vegetables are indeed affected by an increase in prices, which finds justification. The UFC-Que Choisir association, for its part, notes a stability in the price of basic necessities.
- A note from the central territorial intelligence service, which 20 Minutes obtained, nevertheless points to some abuses.
“In one week, the price of potatoes goes from 1.39 € to 7.50 € per kilo. Mr Carrefour, if we insult you on Twitter, we will be prosecuted? This April 12 tweet went viral and rekindled controversy over rising prices in supermarkets since the coronavirus epidemic.
Even if it is a misleading message (the author of the tweet is actually comparing potatoes of different varieties), other Internet users also express their doubts on social networks. "Stop racketeering." Currently, prices are increasing in our supermarkets and hypermarkets, while the people of France no longer earn money as usual, following the economic climate of #covid 19 ", can we read for example in a tweet published on Tuesday . Another tweet from April 13 denounces "soaring prices":
“Well done to the supermarkets to raise prices as much in these difficult times. Toilet paper usually bought 3.49 which goes to 5.99 (same brand eh). It's a shame. And this is the case for almost all products, ”writes another internet user. "Honestly even by taking just essential stuff, or very little, or just vegetables and boom you necessarily come out with 50 € when you really have an empty bag", adds another. Or again: "I understand that some people are a bit stupid in robbing stores, but this really affects the price too much, not to mention the store brand items that disappear, replaced by brands three times more expensive" .
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Have large and medium-sized stores (GMS) taken advantage of confinement to generate higher prices? "It is true, I recognize it, there is, on certain fresh fruits and vegetables a strong increase", had already indicated on April 8 the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, as relayed 20 Minutes , the explaining in particular by the fact that previously imported products were replaced by French production.
The potatoes accused in the first tweet are an example, as the supermarket manager told AFP: "A week ago, we decided to stop a more ordinary variety of early potatoes , Celtiane, which was not local, to make potatoes from Île de Ré, because they have just arrived on the market. "
Interfel, the fruit and vegetable industry, also explained in a press release that “the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables may be slightly impacted […] by the development of certain costs, in particular those of transport or the impacts linked to lack of manpower ”.
"Pure opportunism"
A note from the central territorial intelligence service dated April 7, which 20 Minutes has obtained and which mentions in particular food supplies, confirms: "A phenomenon of rising prices observed in supermarkets and hypermarkets can be explain by the supply difficulties, the additional costs linked to the disorganization of transport (problem of return of empty loads). "
But this document also evokes abuses which find no justification and which it describes as "pure opportunism": "For example, in the Cher, this increase would be 4% and the DGCCRF [Directorate General for Competition, consumption and repression of fraud] is seized of the file. "Some play the game and others take advantage of the situation. Not all store owners are exemplary, ”also deplores the purchasing manager of a hypermarket east of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) on April 10 in the columns of Ouest France . Contacted by 20 Minutes , the association UFC-Que Choisir indicates that no consumer complaints have been noted in the Cher.
UFC-Que Choisir, on the other hand, put online a few days ago the results of its study intended to monitor, since the start of containment, the drive prices for 104 essential products in ten stores (Cora, Auchan, Intermarché, E. Leclerc, Casino, U, Carrefour, Chronodrive and Colruyt). Result: “This follow-up confirms two trends: the prices of consumer products have increased very little in the big brands, but the addition is more salty for their customers. The explanation for this apparent paradox is linked to the shortage of the cheapest products. "
Large supermarkets, for their part, have taken measures: Intermarché has blocked "until May 15 the prices of 10,000 products of national brands or private labels". At Carrefour, 500 products from the “unbeatable prices” operation are frozen. And E.Leclerc made the decision to “block the prices of more than 4,000 Marque Mark products”.
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