From this Thursday, January 27 and until March 31, 234 Casino group hypermarkets and supermarkets will offer their 13-kilogram gas cylinders at cost and blocked. Other products will follow, in order to support the purchasing power of households, according to information revealed on Wednesday by Le Parisien.
“Gas is a symbolic product, to which the French are very sensitive, as we can see at the moment”, underlines a Casino spokeswoman, questioned by the newspaper, who recalls that “the price of gas cylinders has jumped by 7% between June 1, 2021 and January 1, 2022”. Casino sells between 7,000 and 10,000 units per week.
The initiative of the distributor based in Saint-Etienne comes a few days after the commercial coup carried out by one of its French competitors, the E. Leclerc centers, which decided to sell its baguette at the bargain price of 29 centimes, provoking fierce controversy and controversy with bakery professionals.
The initiatives launched by Casino and Leclerc have one thing in common: they come at a time when prices are rising, starting with energy and fuel prices. For the large distributors, the commercial stake is capital: it is a question, whether for the baguette or the gas cylinder, of making an impression on the minds of consumers and attracting them to their supermarkets and hypermarkets, at a time when their purchasing power is deteriorating.
After gas, “other essential products, food and non-food”, should in turn see their price blocked at Casino, according to information from Le Parisien.