Demining operation this Wednesday for the government’s anti-inflation basket. The office of the delegated minister Olivia Grégoire, who is in charge of this file, tried to reassure, explaining that she wants the large retailers to settle “collectively”, starting in March, for a period of three months.
The list of products that this basket must contain is not yet defined. What we do know is that it is a set of about fifty products, of different categories, food and non-food, of quality, whose prices should not increase as quickly as the rate of inflation.
No restriction for distributors: they will be free to participate or not in the operation. Each brand will also be able to choose exactly which products to put in their basket, based on the categories. For example, for starches, you can choose to put pasta or rice, etc. They are also free to set a price: There will be no national maximum price for these baskets.
Bercy insists that the tariff effort should not be made at the expense of industrialists and farmers and that it should be “financed by the distributors.”
“We don’t wait to do our job”
Distributors, who, for the moment, have not rushed to be part of the operation. To date, only Système U and Lidl have declared to follow in the government’s footsteps. The others have not spoken or have decided, at least for now, not to participate. This is the case of Carrefour, according to our information.
Several players in the sector are waiting to learn more about the contours of the measure. In the current state of affairs, the Casino group has left the choice to go or not to their various brands. On the side of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution, it is repeated that “this issue is the trade policy of each” group and that “everyone is engaged in anti-inflationary initiatives.” “We haven’t waited to do our job,” insists a distributor.
It’s not just dealers who are circumspect, even critical. At the end of January, at Europe 1, the head of UFC-Que Choisir, Alain Bazot, spoke of a “gadget” and compared this basket to “the one with the little red riding hood”. The FNSEA, the main farmers’ union, has also been reticent…
Fake good idea?
On the Bercy side, we do not dismount. “We are maintaining the initial level of ambition and we hope to convince all the brands”, they tell us in Olivia Grégoire’s entourage. An exercise that is even more difficult when talking to negotiation professionals… However, a source familiar with the subject tells us, “when it comes to fighting for the purchasing power of the French, there is no bad initiative. “Waiting for other distributors to come out of nowhere, perhaps, by March 1st, this government basket seems to be a false good idea at the moment.
Source: BFM TV
