Paris (AFP)

In the desperate search for medical equipment linked to the coronavirus pandemic is added a rush on many everyday products by the French confined, ink cartridges in mind, sometimes leading to stock-outs.

"We saw a seasonal rise in early September in general, but we never saw such a peak" says Yacine Abdel Fatah, manager of Cartoooche, a printing equipment merchant who has been operating for fifteen years east of Paris and remained open during confinement.

Telephone calls multiplied by four, sales of printers by five, reams of paper by seven ... In two hours, the shop often achieves its daily turnover and suffers from temporary stock shortages on several ink references.

As France enters its third week of confinement, the need for impressions linked to homework, the reception of online courses by students and exit certificates have given ink the status of new "gold" black".

Sales of cartridges soared 258% in total in the week following the start of containment, a tripling of turnover in the sector, details the market research institute GfK.

"It gets carried away completely, I never knew that, not even a week of Black Friday", recognizes a sales manager of a printing equipment giant who wishes to remain anonymous and alludes to the day of sales particularly aggressive during the holidays.

- Tripling -

A review of several sales sites revealed a stock shortage on many references. On Amazon on Wednesday, more than half of the twenty results from the first "ink cartridge" search page were either out of stock, or subject to extended delivery times.

Asked by AFP, the American giant said that due to a spike in orders the platform favors "priority" products, which can lead to unavailability or longer delivery times for others.

Printers are also logically among the most popular devices since mid-March and government announcements about containment. To the point, according to the Consumer Observatory of UFC-Que Choisir, that the need for equipment of the French has generated a waltz of labels.

These devices have seen their price increase by 13% since the beginning of containment, specifies the organization, adding that "certain merchants seek to take advantage of the fact that the supply is reduced and that the needs of the French are more and more pressing for raise their prices. "

In addition to the computer equipment, very popular during this period, other articles of daily life were taken by storm, like the freezers. The "cold" part of the Fnac Darty group has, for example, been multiplied to ten at the start of confinement, taken by storm by consumers wishing to store foodstuffs, without however suffering any shortage.

- Supply -

On the other hand, shortages of temporary stocks have been noted on many references of hair clippers, in particular inexpensive models, while hairdressing salons will have to keep doors closed for the duration of the confinement.

According to the online seller Boulanger.com, however, this has more to do with logistics problems than with a shortage of these products. According to him, the sometimes "unprecedented" increase in certain online orders and the longer delivery times by carriers are the main explanation for the decline in the availability of items.

Auchan, which has observed a jump of more than 400% on games since containment and which currently records three references of cartridges in the Top 20 of its best daily sales, stresses for its part that transient breaks may be more linked to precautionary "storage" on the part of many customers, such as what was observed in food at the start of confinement.

While the food sector and certain products are massively sought after by the French, others, like fashion and equipment for the home, have however fallen drastically for two weeks.

© 2020 AFP