2023-09-01 08:00:35
“What I observe is unheard of”. Invited to the microphone of BFM-RMC, the president of System U, Dominique Schelcher, returned this Friday to food inflation and its consequences on the consumption habits of the French. “There is in this new school year, a shock of purchasing power. Because food inflation for two years has been +21%,” he recalls. “When your food basket increases by 21% over two years, you change your behavior in depth,” observes Dominique Schelcher.
Faced with this rate of inflation, the country is seeing the emergence of “three Frances”, according to him. “A first third is in great difficulty, with a worrying number of people who skip meals. A second third, that of the middle class, has also changed its behavior: these French people buy less meat and fewer national brands. And finally, a small last third continues to spend without counting because they have the income that goes with it, so yes the transformation is very profound, ”laments the president of System U.
“An element of the chain did not play the game enough”
Incidentally, Dominique Schelcher believes that the management of this inflation is still “very unbalanced”. “Compared to the results they are doing, manufacturers might have made an extra effort,” said the boss of System U. He takes the example of the Coca-Cola soda brand.
“Coca-Cola is a product that has grown a lot in recent years and whose basic bottle has gone from 1.5 liters to 1.25 liters. What contribution did he have? The brand has been promoting for three months on 10 least sold products in our assortment… At around 10%, this is not possible (…) In the face of inflation, it is clear that an element of the chain n did not play the game enough to support the French”, regrets Dominique Schelcher.
After meetings with manufacturers and representatives of large retailers, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire announced Thursday “a global agreement”, with the ambition of “definitively breaking the spiral of food prices “. This agreement provides in particular that until the end of the year, the prices of 5,000 references will stop rising or even fall. Food prices jumped 11.1% year on year in August, a slower rise than in July (12.7%) but still significant.
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