Pasta, whose prices have increased by 12.9%, and entry-level products are increasingly common in consumer shopping carts.
Inflation begins to be taken into account by the French when shopping. According to a study by panelist NielsenQ, relayed by BFM Business, some consumers have already fallen back on private label products (MDD) to the detriment of the big brands.
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Thus, while sales of major brand products fell at the start of the year, those of private labels are on the rise, after a rather gloomy 2021. But in detail, not all distributor product categories are experiencing the same dynamic. Distributor brandsstandards» experienced growth of 0.2% over the first three months of the year, while the products «first price» saw their sales increase by 11% over the same period.
The French, on the other hand, are abandoning private label products “organic“, with sales down 4.9%. In the same way, consumers buy fewer products labeled “premium(-3.4%). In short, consumers are anticipating the effects of inflation and are already downgrading their purchases.
Attempt to anticipate
Inflation linked to global demand and the invasion of Ukraine is indeed driving prices up. And in particular those of cereals and energy and cereals. This phenomenon, which was already observed to some extent in February, accelerated further in March, with inflation of +1.26% compared to the same month the previous year. The base of products concerned has also widened considerably: while 68% had seen their prices increase in February, they were 81% in March.
Among the products most affected, pasta, whose prices rose by 12.9% according to panelist Iri, as well as desserts (+5.9%), oil (+4.5%) and flour (+3.9%). The French have also rushed to these last two products in recent days, in the hope of anticipating the rise in prices: sales have increased by more than half for one and for the other.
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Despite the uncertainties weighing on certain productions (and in particular that of Ukrainian wheat), French distributors want to be reassuring for the moment. “In France, today, there is no shortage for everyday consumption and there will not be until the summer“, thus affirmed at the beginning of April the president of the strategic committee E.Leclerc, Michel-Edouard Leclerc. “Pasta, there is. For sunflower oil, our stocks go until June“.
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