As inflation continues to rise, the Minister of the Economy met with retail players on Monday, March 6. An agreement has been reached to combat rising food prices, with the launch of an "anti-inflation quarter". The distributors have thus committed to offer the "lowest possible" prices until June on a selection of products.
The device, financed through the margins of distributors, will cost them "several hundred million euros" and the government also intends to deploy in the coming months a "food voucher" for the most modest households, said Mr. The mayor.
At the end of this "anti-inflation quarter", "we will reopen trade negotiations [theoretically annual and which have just been completed] with the large manufacturers so that the fall in wholesale prices, which we observe on the markets but which is not yet transmitted to everyday consumer products, could be translated" into everyday products, the minister said.
The products will be "chosen freely" by each of the distributors, the minister said, and may vary from region to region. They will be identifiable by a tricolor "anti-inflation quarter" logo. The bulk of commercial operations will focus on private label products, on which retailers have the most "latitude" to set prices, explained the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Carrefour, Alexandre Bompard.
Leclerc absent noticed
Absent from this meeting in Bercy, Michel-Edouard Leclerc did not want to participate, evoking "an orchestration side" and political communication around the "anti-inflation" basket, a time proposed and then abandoned by the government. "I'm not going to go on the photo to say Leclerc sells for less", launched on CNews the president of the strategic committee of Leclerc centers.
"I did not wait for a public meeting to be cheaper," continued Mr. Leclerc, who does not want to "sacrifice this price image on the altar of political communication". However, "I'm not slamming the door in Bruno the Mayor's face," he assured, adding that he was going to speak to the minister "later" on the phone.
Tensions with mass distribution
Faced with food inflation, which reached 14.5% over one year in February according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), several brands, such as System U, Carrefour, Monoprix or Intermarché have already announced "anti-inflation" devices, making the government's plan for an "anti-inflation basket" de facto superfluous. The idea, suggested at the end of 2022 by the Minister Delegate for Trade, Olivia Grégoire, to guarantee low prices on a selection of consumer products, was finally abandoned by the executive, the big brands opposing a single basket imposed by the State.
Relations between the government and large retailers had been strained in recent weeks after the adoption by the National Assembly in January of a text redefining the balance of power between suppliers and distributors. The big brands, including Leclerc, castigated a measure that risked worsening inflation.
