It’s undeniable: shopping in Paris is much more expensive than elsewhere in France. According to some analysts, the particularly high price of the Parisian basket is explained by the omnipresence of the Casino and Carrefour groups, which hold respectively 53 and 25% of the food distribution market shares. But is this the only reason that impacts the customer portfolio?
France info, in partnership with NielsenIQ, launched its France Bleu Basket in December 2022, a kind of interactive map allowing you to know the price index by department, compared to the national average. With prices 19% higher than elsewhere, Paris is unsurprisingly the most expensive department in France. The price of the average basket in the capital is set at 121.16 euros. France info also notes very high prices in the inner suburbs (12% more expensive in Hauts-de-Seine, 9.3% in Val-de-Marne, 7.2% in Seine-Saint-Denis, etc.). Filling your basket in the City of Light is therefore expensive, even very expensive.
UFC-Que Choisir recently put online a supermarket price comparison tool. In Paris, almost all of them appear in the “very expensive” list, and none appear in the “cheap” or “fairly cheap” category. Several stores located in the city centers of other major French cities are however listed in the last category. In an inflationary context impacting purchasing power, many voices are raised against the price of living in Paris, and are looking for those responsible.
Two players would be mainly targeted: the Casino group, via its Franprix and Monoprix brands, which has 53% of the food distribution market share, and the Carrefour group and its 25% market share. The “duopoly” potentially held by distributors would, according to Le Parisien for example, have consequences on the customer portfolio. The lack of competition in the city would allow the Casino and Carrefour groups to dominate the market and therefore raise prices as they please. However, there are other criteria inherent in Paris which explain the high food prices. The Competition Authority notably raises parameters, such as “the cost of land in the capital, the reduced surface areas which generate higher fixed costs or even the higher average income level than elsewhere”. Added to this is the exorbitant cost of commercial rents in Paris, set on average at €530/m2 per year, according to Localcommercial.net, compared to around €180 in other departments. Logistics costs, especially those concerning delivery, are also very high, compared to the rest of France. These different charges inevitably affect customers’ receipts.
In addition, if the prices displayed in the Casino and Carrefour stores are higher than the national average, the same goes for other services such as hotels, restaurants, cafes or transport… Paris is a city unfortunately more expensive than the others on all counts. It has also often been described as “the most expensive city in the world” by the newspaper The Economist in recent years! Nothing would prevent other French distributors (Intermarché, Auchan, Lidl, Aldi, Super U, etc.) from opening stores in Paris. The omnipresence of the Casino group and the Carrefour group on the market does not mean that the latter have a say in the development of competition in the city. By taking the height, it is important to underline that the two distributors contribute to the economic dynamism of the capital and generate employment. Also, most of the Carrefour City, Market, Franprix and Monoprix are convenience stores, therefore accessible on foot or by bike, unlike supermarkets and hypermarkets, which are certainly less expensive, but located on the outskirts of metropolitan areas. An asset when you know that half of Parisian households do not have a car.
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