They were already making sacrifices to stick to their small budget, but since the prices have gone up, they can’t make it anymore. So they started stealing from supermarkets. Franceinfo collected the testimonies of four of them.
Planted in front of the fruit and vegetable stalls, she looks at the labels. She can barely afford anything. For months she hardly eats any meat or fish because of inflation. That day, for the first time, Nabiya* discreetly slips a pear into her handbag. The following weeks, it will be a can of tuna, a can of beans or tomato puree.
In France, inflation on foodstuffs has reached 12% in one year, according to INSEE. The prices of dairy products increased by 16.9%, those of meat by 14%. Increases which, month after month, ate away the budgets of the most modest, until some started stealing food. Faced with this phenomenon, supermarkets are equipping themselves with locks to protect their products, reports 20 minutes.
In 2022, shoplifting increased by 14%, according to figures provided by the Ministry of the Interior. Without asserting that this phenomenon is entirely linked to inflation, franceinfo has collected the testimony of several people who started flying this year, crushed by the rise in prices.
“Everything has increased, except our salaries”
Despite his unfailing discipline, Nabiya can’t make it anymore. I’21-year-old audiovisual student has always calculated everything. Financially independent since she was 18, the little brunette is struggling to finance her studies with her part-time job in a clothing store. For a long time, she learned to list each of her expenses and to set a budget of 150 euros of shopping per month. Until then, it was ric-rac, but she managed. In 2022, inflation shattered this organization to the nearest euro.
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For the first time, Nabiya goes to a food aid distribution, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. For hundreds and hundreds of meters, hooded figures wait below the giant buildings of the district. It’s not more than 1°C outside. Nabiya is wrapped up in her coat and scarf. Volunteers from the Linkee association, which organizes the distribution, offer hot tea to the students. Some have been waiting for more than 45 minutes.
“It’s been several months since I’ve already arrived at my budget after three weeks of shopping, so I’m eating less healthily, says the student. Everything has gone up, except our salaries.“ So, to continue consuming fruits and vegetables, she started stealing from supermarkets.
“Even while flying, sometimes I’m hungry. I deprive myself of dinner to save money.”
Nabiya, audiovisual student in Parisat franceinfo
At the food distribution of the Linkee association, the students leave with a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables. But no dairy, no meat or fish, no preserves either. Those who have already waited 30 minutes or an hour must follow up with supermarket shopping to complete. Several admit to half-word having already stolen. They justify or explain: “I wasn’t brought up like that”, “I didn’t think it would come to this”, “we’re not going to lie to each other, it hurts the ego”.
“You die the slab, you take them, the apples”
At 65, François* now steals two or three kilos of fruit and vegetables a week from the supermarket in the small town of Picardy where he lives. It started a year ago. “There is no clickhe confides. You break the slab, you skip one, two, three, four meals, and then you take them, the apples.” At 5.95 euros per kilo. An unthinkable price for him.
“I don’t steal old people, I’m not aggressivedefends this auto-entrepreneur. I do my job well, but I don’t make a living from it.” For this working poor, 2022 was the year “everything exploded”. During the Covid-19, the government had allowed auto-entrepreneurs to defer the payment of their contributions. But this year, the sexagenarian had to repay this debt of 3,600 euros. At the same time, his electricity bill went from 20 to 57 euros. Added to this is the increase in food prices. Three hammer blows in a life on the wire. Forced to go to Restos du Coeur, François does not manage.
To save money, the Picard no longer puts on the heating. “When, for a week, you have not heated your house, your brain explodes, you can no longer work.” The hardest part for him “It’s not about not having money, it’s about you already not being part of the party. You learn not to want a new pair of shoes anymore, you cut. there is nothing that affects me anymore. Why do we take the apples? Because we’re all alone.”
“It’s heavy for me, and for those around me”
Julie* also knows what it means to no longer participate in the party. At 24, she is in a hurry: to finally have a salary. To realize her dream of becoming a lawyer, she completed six years of studies, which she financed through scholarships and her summer jobs. Arriving in Paris, before the explosion of inflation, she made several decisions to cope with the cost of living in the capital. No more shopping in small city center supermarkets, more practical, but more expensive. Now she goes to a discount store. She also avoids going out to bars as much as possible, which sometimes prevents her from seeing her friends. “By force, it’s heavy for me, and for those around me.”
With a monthly budget of 700 euros, once the rent and the charges have been paid, he has 200 euros left for his shopping, his outings, his purchases. It was already “very tight”, but his shopping basket has increased, going from 30 to 40 and then to 50 euros per week. Julie has no money left and her parents cannot help her. For her, who has already trimmed everything, the equation becomes impossible.
“After a while, you can’t scratch here and there anymore. I exceeded my budget by 20 euros. Except that these 20 euros, I needed to go home for Christmas.”
Julie*, law student in Parisat franceinfo
Before, she went to food distributions for students. “It’s great, but it also requires a lot of organization. You had to be there on time on Friday evening. Given the queue that sometimes lasts an hour, you think three times about it, it’s a real investment in time.” As much time as she does not spend revising. She also prefers to leave food distributions to “those who need it most”. “There are a lot of migrants or foreigners at the food bank, I know they can’t fly, I don’t risk being expelled.”
From now on, Julie steals all her fruits and vegetables, condiments, and rather expensive sauces. “to change tomato sauce”bread or nuts. “I tell myself that it’s really temporary, I don’t like it, I don’t do it out of conviction”assures the young woman. In Bordeaux, Gabriel* is in the same situation. “It’s not necessarily easy to approach”, he admits in a timid voice. The pro license student is torn between the shame of flying and the fear of being a burden on his parents. His father, a town hall employee, and his mother, an employee in a supermarket, are already financing the rent for his small studio in Bordeaux.
“I’m the eldest in the family, I have to fend for myself. It bothers me to ask my parents too much, I know it’s going to put them in trouble.”
Gabriel*, pro license student in Bordeauxat franceinfo
Over the past year, his basket has increased by “10 or 15 euros”. For “limit breakage” in the face of inflation, he began to slip an onion, a potato, an orange or a kiwi into his bag. Just what “dampen the final price a little”. At first he felt guiltybut he try to ignore it. “If I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I can’t help it.”
“It does not surprise me, I am firmly convinced that even old people are starting to steal”, testifies Jacques Heitz, coordinator of Restos du Coeur in Schiltigheim, near Strasbourg. The volunteer says he helped a family who only had 22 cents left in their bank account. “We know she can’t do it unless she flies.” At the national level, the Restos du Coeur noted a 12% increase in the number of people welcomed, between April and November 2022, compared to the same period in 2021. And even an 18% increase since November.
“Can’t wait to just be able to take a breather”
Not having enough money to buy food is even more frustrating when you like to cook. At Inès*, food is a family affair: “We have always liked to eat well, good products, meat, wine…” With her ex-husband, the almost sixty-year-old ran a pizzeria in Bordeaux, which they sold three years ago. At the time, she managed to free herself “a little minimum wage”. Since then, the situation of this trained educator has become more complicated.
At 59, she lives with the 500 euros of her specific solidarity allowance (ASS), to which are added 200 euros of additional income. So now that inflation is raging, the sacrifices are piling up. “I have a great butcher next to my house, but since inflation, I eat a lot less meat. Fish, I love it, but it has become exceptional”, says the former restaurateur.
“I don’t remember, before, having been so forced to count, to be careful. It took a power over my life.”
Inès, educatorat franceinfo
If she admits that she already happened to “poke in the shops”lately it is more and more often, and “by necessity”. She takes products that she finds “abnormally expensive”red onions – “I love it, but it’s so much more expensive than the yellow ones” –, beef carpaccio, avocados…
Like Julie, Inès prefers to steal rather than attend food distributions. “I prefer to leave the food from Restos du Coeur to the homeless, because as soon as they enter a store, they are spotted right away, they can’t steal.” Julie, the student, is looking forward to the moment when she will no longer have to pilfer, “no longer having to think about it all the time. I can’t wait to just get a breather.” The student assures her, as soon as she receives her first salary, she will stop. “Maybe I’ll even send an anonymous check, to pay back everything I stole.”
*Names have been changed.