REPORT. In the Cher, inflation weighs down the carts: “For the aperitif, we buy sub-brands”

“Have you seen the price of the oil? I found some at the grocery store: 5.50 euros a bottle, nonsense! We’re not at war, huh…” In the free shuttle that crisscrosses the city of Saint-Amand-Montrond, in the Cher, Tuesday, May 17, everyone benefits from the telephone discussion of a passenger. The lady in the mustard floral dress recounts her morning gold rush. “No choice, I had to”, she says to her neighbor on the phone. The sunflower ingot is right there, stored in an opaque plastic bag.

The Pépita shuttle stops in front of the Cité de l’or, the city’s convention center. In the 20th century, the discreet commune of Berry was one of the French capitals of jewellery. But since the oil crisis of the 1970s and the surge in prices, Saint-Amand-Montrond no longer rolls on gold, far from it. The unemployment rate is well above the national average, the median income is twice as low and the population has slipped below 10,000 inhabitants. In recent months, as in the rest of the country, soaring prices have been watched with apprehension.

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Opposite the Cité de l’or, behind the local Pôle emploi agency, sits a much livelier building: the Leclerc hypermarket. A battalion of morning retirees, loyal to the post, pick from the shelves. Trolley in arm, Jean-Claude and Monique return to the parking lot.

“Proof that prices are rising? We see them every four mornings changing labels.

– Every time we come. ‘And they don’t do it to diminish,’ I said to my husband.”

In April, INSEE recorded annual inflation of 3.8% for food. The most affected products are already showing a jump of more than 10%. In a few weeks, some customers have reviewed their habits. “We have halved our purchases of fresh vegetables”storm Françoise, a 63-year-old former medical-psychiatrist, on leaving Leclerc. “We fall back on canned or frozen foods, that’s not like us. These days, if you don’t have a garden, you have a hard time eating vegetables. I have one, but the land is so dry and water so expensive…”

His son Martin, a sturdy 30-year-old, recently unemployed, continues. “Since the beginning of the year, every time we go shopping, we come out without having been able to buy everything we had on our list. We put off certain products until later, when there will be a promotion on them. Meat, fish, spices… And we rush to DLC products [date limite de consommation] short.” The day before, the pair made the morning opening of the Carrefour Market on the corner, for a raid on the dairy products sold off before being expired.

How much do you have to tighten your belt? “We will have to go further”press Martin.

“Until now, we avoided national brands, but also the cheapest ranges, because it’s really not good. Too bad, we’ll have to go back to it.”

Martin, client of Leclerc in Saint-Amand-Montrond

at franceinfo

Among the flood of customers, not everyone has yet noticed the waltz of labels in the food aisles. Sometimes a few echoes. The most obvious remains “the slap” of soaring petrol prices, from which Etienne, 33, is struggling to recover. “Since I took 15 or 20 euros in the face on fuel, for my races, I buy sub-brands more often, describes this guide employed by a local chateau. As an aperitif, with friends, it’s no longer Belin.”

In Kévin, 26 years old and four children, inflation has just made a first disappointed (although, it will be necessary to ask him): the dog of the family. Accustomed to Fido recipes, he must now cut his teeth on Eco + croquettes, Leclerc’s “first price” range. “Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we see that everything is increasingreports his master, an assistant repairer of railway carriages. Two months ago I managed to split my gas bills by switching to ethanol, but I still have to be careful. I started juggling between stores, following their Facebook pages and looking at catalogs in the mailbox.”

At the edge of the car park, along the D951, the scorching sun has washed out an old Intermarché billboard. “Unbeatable promotions”already promised the poster to motorists, who are told on the shelves of Leclerc that “Here you know you are buying cheaper”. On its journey, the Pépita shuttle passes in front of Netto, a self-declared haunt of “lowest prices at hard discount”. Here we are at Intermarché, for “best, cheapest” – but too late for the weekend promo, “-50% in vouchers on the butchery department from 20 euros”.

An almost full cart tumbles onto the asphalt. At the controls, a teenager and his big brother. The mother, Sabrina, follows them from afar. “With this full, I will last three days”, she lets go, fatalistic, thinking of her five children to feed. His receipt shows a total of 107.22 euros. “A few weeks ago, it would have been 15 euros less”, she gauges. With inflation, this executive assistant projects ten years back, when her standard of living was more modest. “I’m back to buying Top Budget products, it’s sad.”

The 40-year-old mother sees “everything” go up, like the price of canned goods. “The ravioli that I leave for the children when I’m not there have gone up to 2.70 euros. I didn’t take any.” As a replacement, she opted for cassoulet at 2.80 euros a box. More expensive, but there is a trick.

“I took cassoulet because my children like it less. They will eat just enough, without refilling out of greed.”

Sabrina, customer of the Saint-Amand-Montrond Intermarché

at franceinfo

A bus stop further, the local Lidl. The leaflets placed at the exit go like hot cakes. Featured: “XXL, maximum quantity at minimum price”, with a slew of promotions (and a shipment of sewing machines for Mother’s Day). No word on price increases. For that, there is Valérie, a regular at the store. “The 500 grams of margarine were still at 0.99 euros a few weeks ago”, she assures. Here is the clod displayed at 1.05 euro.

“Since the thing in Ukraine, they abuse the prices”, believes Valérie, without really knowing who to target. The state is often cited, accused of making its own money on VAT and fuel taxes. Her husband, a delivery driver for Intermarché, pays more than 100 euros a week at the pump to take up his post, 50 km away. “Inevitably, we start imagining robberies, jokes Valerie. One car in front, one behind, and we get the semi open!”

More cautiously, this mother of two children “fills less” his cart, forgoes flowers and makes sure his daughter, a student in Paris, has enough to eat. “At the weekend, she leaves with her shopping bag. It’s more expensive there, even at Lidl. So I fill her up here. It hurts me when she tells me she doesn’t eat meat, because it’s too expensive. She has three jobs to get by.”

Food price inflation could reach 5% in May, then 6.3% in June, according to INSEE. Some industry players are already talking about the 10% mark. Pending new government measures for purchasing power, such as the food voucher, concern is mounting on the shelves of Lidl. “For the first time, I anticipate Christmas presents”, slips Joseph, a 54-year-old caregiver, who began to measure his expenses in a computer spreadsheet. First lesson: buy fewer branded products.

Marie-José, a former employee of a printing press, pins all her receipts “to make comparisons”. When her income is no longer enough, she will rely on it to know where to go. For the time being, in the German brand, the 76-year-old retiree offers herself her favorite pineapple juice, butter cookies for her grandchildren, apple turnovers for her – “I’m greedy” – and flowers.

“As long as you can have fun, you have to take advantage of it.”

Marie-José, client of the Lidl of Saint-Amand-Montrond

at franceinfo

“We are not depriving ourselves yet, but we are calculating, and I don’t think it will be for long”, abounds Marie-Hélène, a 58-year-old caregiver. She has already said goodbye to her Breton butter: “It was 4.20 euros for 500 grams, it’s fine, yes.”

Aurore mourns the four salmon steaks that usually feed the four mouths of the house. “Since January, they have gone from 8.90 to 11 euros, and now 13”, says the nurse. As a plan B, “a less expensive, less noble fish”whose name she has already forgotten. “I worry about the future. There was the Covid, the war in Ukraine, inflation… We don’t know what we can become, we are safe from nothing.”

In Saint-Amand-Montrond, as elsewhere in France, supermarket managers are observing these new reflexes. “We can see that customers are increasingly taking out calculators”says one of them. “Despite our efforts, the prices of shopping carts are increasing, recognize another. So far, there have been no tensions in store. It’s something other than the ‘yellow vests’. People don’t even have the courage to revolt anymore.”