It is a store located in a popular district of Toulon (Var), around the port and Mayol, the rugby stadium. A Carrefour hypermarket like there are hundreds in France. At the checkouts, on the other side of the treadmill, mostly women who have been coping for months, powerless, to the distress of their customers in the face of rising prices. Chistelle, Evelyne, Ouafa or Céline have agreed to testify about their daily lives on the eve of a new day of strikes and demonstrations for wage increases, Thursday, October 27.
Some have more than twenty years of experience at Carrefour. This profession, they know it by heart. And yet, they now dread the moment when they have to hand the receipt to the customer. “There is not a customer who does not pay attention in the end to how much it costs him. ‘And why do I have to pay so much? What is expensive? describes Christelle, cashier in this supermarket for four years.
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Evelyne, who has worked at Carrefour for ten years, replays a recurring dialogue: “‘You were wrong! Look at the screen, you were wrong’. But no, not at all, unfortunately, we were not wrong”. “So we give them more or less details of the ticket, continues Christelle. But often they leave their items with us because they don’t have enough.” Like this customer who finally gave up his batch of baguettes: “It’s stupid, bread. Ten baguettes at five euros while the gentleman had seen it at 4 euros. He did not take it. It’s only one euro, but one euro is a lot now.”
Evelyne and her colleagues assure us that no one is safe from a bad surprise. “We have as many grandpas, grandmas, young people, students, mothers… It’s the whole society, summarizes Evelyn. We see it every day.” The cashiers are also witnesses to the changes taking place in the trolleys. Certain items are now over-represented such as pasta, rice, potatoes and “first price eggs”, Evelyn list. When other products have suddenly disappeared like minced meat “which exploded” in flight, she observes, or the fish that “sold a lot”. “Eating five fruits and vegetables a day is more possible”.
According to these cashiers, customers sometimes complain violently about the increase in the cost of living. Flights are also on the rise. Céline Arnaud, CGT manager, has worked at Carrefour for more than twenty years and she has noticed a completely new phenomenon: “We have people who eat in the store. There are picnics that take place. We go to the department and we find baguettes, sausage that has been cut and people eat in the store. It’s horrible not being able to eat enough.”
These cashiers witness scenes they never thought they would see one day, like this old gentleman who tried to hide some food. “He had his hat, remembers Evelyn, and in fact, he had put a chicken under the hat…”
“People steal to eat. Before, it was for make-up or household appliances. Now people steal to eat.”
Evelyn, cashierat franceinfo
Most often, these women are mainly confronted with the anger or even the aggressiveness of certain clients. “The least ten cents more on an article, we take a lotloose Christelle. Everything is our fault and all day we have insults, every day. Every day, every day…” “Me, for example, I am called a bitch, says Ouafa, cashier at Carrefour for 17 years. In fact, they empty their bag on the cashier.” Céline Arnaud describes clients who are exhausted by having to make choices: “We’re there. It’s not: ‘do we take the DVD or not’, it’s: ‘do we take the bread’. When they arrive at the checkout, they are upset, angry, because they can’t make ends meet, because everything is harder, because everything is more expensive.”
“It’s insults, it’s spitting, it’s fights. It can start suddenly”.
Celine Arnaudat franceinfo
“The cashier is the last person they see in the store, laments Evelyn. So basically they’re going after us mBut compared to Carrefour, they say: ‘They’re thieves’.” Through these cashiers, it is the giants of mass distribution who are targeted. “But we are the same, we have very low salaries, we count every month!”
The distress of certain customers sends these cashiers back to their own difficulties. They themselves do not escape the consequences of inflation. “We can’t do it anymore, we can’t get out of it anymore, testifies Christelle. Me, I have 1,100 euros, sometimes even 1,070 monthly salary. Me, I’m not doing it, personally. On the fifteenth of the month, I have no more money.” “We survive! We don’t live, we survive!”, confirms Evelyne who with between 1,200 and 1,250 euros per month, finds herself strangled by the charges. “I’m on my own, so the rent, everything, food, insurance, parking…”
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“Honestly, we are not better off than the customers, abounds Céline Arnaud. We are not shocked because in the end, this is what we experience every day. Today, with the salaries we have, we cannot live with dignity. We can only survive. Ultimatelyour customers are in precariousness but we can only understand them since it is the majority of Carrefour employees who live in precariousness”.
For these low-wage cashiers, a new threat looms. They say they have been warned of the upcoming sale of the store, sold by Carrefour to a buyer. With the risk for them of losing big. “We lose all the advantages, all the company agreements and we really don’t know where we are going”, is in despair Céline Arnaud. For its part, the management indicates by email to franceinfo that“This is just an ad for this store that is likely to go into lease-management” and that’“No decision has been made to date.”
To defend wages and their jobs, the sellers are planning a walkout during the week. They will be able to count on the support of a part of the clientele battered by the rise in prices, but in solidarity with these cashiers.