Are we heading towards a “netflixization” of consumption? In any case, the lucrative subscription formula is emulated beyond video on demand. Thus, the Fnac-Darty group launched its Darty Max offer in 2019. It allows customers to have all of their household appliances repaired for 10 to 20 euros per month. Darty Max had 500,000 subscribers in 2021. Now there are 800,000. Enough to round off the group’s margins, as Vincent Gufflet, director of services and operations at Fnac-Darty recognizes: “Darty Max builds loyalty and allows the development of our repair-related activities. This also contributes to sustaining our income.” Its competitor Boulanger launched Boulanger Infinity in 2022, a very similar offer.
Read alsoReconditioning, repair… How Boulanger wants to compete with Fnac (and vice versa)
The food trade is not left out. Casino inaugurated Casino Max three years ago. For 100 euros per year, subscribers have access to reductions of 10 to 15% on almost all products sold in stores. “The interest is to be rewarded for his loyalty and to preserve his shopping budget”, we explain on the side of Casino. Success is there: Casino Max has 260,000 subscribers, who spend on average four times more than a non-subscriber. “This subscription logic is part of the overall evolution of behaviors, analyzes the expert consultant in large-scale distribution Rodolphe Bonnasse, president of Aristid Retail Technology. We have direct debit with taxes, energy, rent… When the customer goes to the cash register, he sees that the amount of the ticket is falling, but he forgets that he is paying 10 euros per month.”
However, not everyone has yet found their magic formula. The 5.99 euro Carrefour+ subscription, launched in 2021 on an experimental basis in the Rouen agglomeration, does not attract crowds. It only concerns Carrefour brand products and not the traditional fresh departments. The group is currently considering a repositioning.
Read alsoWhy food retailers are getting into Amazon Prime subscription
Labels that burn on Sunday
Casino strawberry tartlets which go from 1.65 euros to 2 euros on Sundays. The liter of Mr. Clean which flies from 4.35 euros to 5.09 euros the same day. Welcome to the world of dynamic pricing, introduced five years ago by Casino using electronic labels. It was abruptly interrupted in February, when trade expert Olivier Dauvers revealed these increases, on average 15%, which affected half of the products sold in stores.
To defend itself, the distributor recalls that the approach was launched in 2018, when it was the pioneer of opening all day on Sundays. The experiment on prices therefore followed this extension of hours, “additional comfort for the consumer”, justifies the group. “This makes it possible to collect operating costs which are more expensive or to maximize margins”, explains consultant Rodolphe Bonnasse. Putting up the labels thus makes it possible to pass on the cost of wages, increased by 30% on Sunday mornings, and therefore to preserve a fairly slim net margin, on average between 1 and 3% in the food trade.
Read alsoInflation: what is dynamic electricity pricing
If the variation in prices during the week, or even the day, is recent in mass distribution, the SNCF or the airlines have been practicing it for a long time. But at the supermarket, the approach can give a stronger feeling of injustice. “Food touches on something vital, analyzes Rodolphe Bonnasse. People have no choice but to do their shopping on Sundays.” Casino was therefore forced to back down. Or almost. Because the brand, which boasted of lowering them at off-peak hours, simply indicates that it has stopped dynamic pricing… “on Sundays”.
Dynamic pricing. With electronic labels, distributors like Casino can vary the prices as they wish, in particular to increase them on certain days of the week. Credit: Challenges
Products that are lighter without being cheaper
Faced with inflation, consumers have been reducing their purchases for several months. But this shedding is sometimes done without their knowledge, on the products themselves. This is called “shrinkflation”. Contraction of shrink (to shrink in English) and inflation, a ruse of the manufacturers which consists in reducing the weight of an article without modifying the price of it. Bringing in the kilo, obviously, is much more expensive.
This sleight of hand, as old as marketing, has been brought up to date as food inflation approaches 15% over one year. Thus, Ocean Spray’s Cranberry juice was reduced by 20% in volume, to reduce the price of a liter by 33%. This “invisible” inflation was brought to light by a Foodwatch survey last September with multiple examples. The NGO notably caught six brands (Teisseire, Danone, Kiri, St Hubert, Saint Louis and Lindt) guilty of sudden weight loss. Since then, the association has continued to receive reports of products that shrink on the sly, such as the sparkling water from Vichy Célestins, whose bottles lost 10 centilitres, when the price per liter increased by 28%. Contacted by Foodwatch, the brand assures that this new format is used to “better preserve the bubbles”.
Read alsoShrinkflation: how manufacturers make you pay more for smaller products
Olivia Grégoire, Minister Delegate for Trade, was quick to react by initiating an investigation by the Directorate General for the Prevention of Fraud. The DGCCRF thus noted anomalies on product packaging in 11% of the 330 stores checked. But it misses the phenomenon of “shrinkflation”, which is not prohibited, by checking only whether the labels correspond to the weight of the products.
Like five other brands, Kiri was spotted by the NGO Foodwatch for losing weight. Credit: SP
“We continue to discuss with the government, but there is still no political response on the horizon”, regrets Audrey Morice, in charge of campaigns at Foodwatch. It will perhaps arrive in May in the Assembly with the bill of deputy LR Vincent Seitlinger. The elected representative of the Moselle wants to force manufacturers to notify on the packaging any change in weight dating from less than three months. In the meantime, if nothing moves, Foodwatch is considering relaunching an investigation to continue the name and shame and denounce the brands guilty of “shrinkflation”.
The dry flight with additional costs
Only 32 euros for a Paris-Faro flight in early May, it’s tempting. Especially at a time when tickets are showing an average increase of 25% for the summer season. But this promotion offered by EasyJet is a dry flight, without any luggage or the possibility of choosing your seat, and even less of having a meal or a snack. So many “auxiliary” expenses that allow low cost companies, and now others, to raise the final price of travel for passengers. The British company, like its competitors Ryanair or Wizair, derives just over a third of its income from these ancillary costs, the share of which has doubled between 2021 and 2022.
Airlines are generalizing additional services, with which they generate more than a third of their income. Screenshot
“We are seeing a generalization of these practices by companies that want to rebuild their margins following the Covid crisis and the current rise in kerosene, observes Guillaume Rostand, spokesperson for the airline ticket comparator Liligo. For the traveler, this implies take a good look at the details of the options. The price of a piece of baggage may thus vary according to the number of hours of the flight or the destination.”
Verification made, the flight to Faro can be tripled if you add the choice of seat (11.99 euros), a hand luggage of 15 kg in the cabin (31.99 euros) and cancellation insurance (14.89 euros) .
Read alsoWhy the price of air tickets is not likely to fall in 2023
By Guillaume Echelard, Léandre Herman-Kasse and Pauline Damour
