More than 6% inflation on average in France, peaks of 10% in food… The French portfolio has been put to the test for several months. A tense context that forces consumers to change their purchasing habits. However, the French are not (yet) ready for all the sacrifices, as two recent studies show.
Thus, according to OpinionWay for Younited, two-thirds of French respondents (64%) have already changed these habits.
Specifically, 46% of those surveyed have cut back on food purchases: 41% would stop buying branded products and 48% would opt for first-price products or their own brands. In addition, 40% had to make savings on their energy bill.
No cuts to spending on tobacco and alcohol
As for leisure, 20% of French people say they have given up going out to restaurants and cultural outings (24%). One in four French people have even canceled trips and holidays.
But at the same time, 68% have not cut their budget on tobacco (despite the fact that packs exceed 10 euros) and 52% have not touched their spending on alcohol.
In another study** conducted by Cutsplace, while 28% of consumers intend to limit going out, 39% do not intend to limit expenses related to children (39%) but also those related to telephony and video on demand (31%) such as Netflix.
A compensation that, however, could evolve if the increase in prices gained more momentum. In the UK, where inflation is higher than in France (over 10%), streaming and video-on-demand platforms top the list of leisure activities sacrificed on the altar of declining purchasing power.
More than 1.5 million subscriptions were canceled during the first quarter of 2022 in the country, according to a study by Kantar. Also according to this same survey, 38% of British households would consider abandoning their subscriptions, compared to 29% in the fourth quarter.
Don’t touch my Netflix
However, the French are lucid or even pessimistic about the sequence of events. According to Younited/OpinionWay, despite the vote on the Purchasing Power bill, only 16% of French people believe that the government will solve the problem. Similarly, neither the large commercial chains (14%) nor the local merchants (13%) seem to be in a position to provide solutions.
Almost 9 out of 10 French people also believe that this inflation will be sustainable, in particular for their limited expenses. A quarter of the French (27%) even believe that all prices will increase.
*: Cutsplace interviewed a representative sample of 1,127 French people
Source: BFM TV
