“Ah, I hadn’t seen that price! », “You were wrong”, “That, you have to take it away from me”… Behind the cash desk of the Casino du Muy supermarket (Var), Claudine Cordina – “forty-one years of mass distribution” – “hear this every day from customers”. And she tirelessly gives them the same answer for several months: “You know, if I could, I would lower the prices. » The purchasing power of the French? Their attitude towards inflation? It is the cashiers of supermarkets who talk about it the best.
On the other side of the conveyor belt, these employees say “second line”during the Covid-19 crisis, are at the forefront of the inflationary tidal wave. Customers complain to them about the rising cost of living – “Everything has become expensive”, “Ukraine has a good back” – or the disappearance of certain products in the store – “The mustard doesn’t come from Ukraine. » In recent months, everywhere in France, cashiers have made the same observation: as informed as they are, consumers do not believe their eyes when they hear the total to be paid.
“One out of two customers tells us: “Oh, it has increased again” or “You were not mistaken?” », says Deborath Cabo, 41, who has worked since she was 19 in the Géant La Foux hypermarket in Gassin (Var). Even the clientele of this store not far from Saint-Tropez, often wealthy (tourists, staff supplying boats, etc.), “Now look two or three times at the receipt to be sure[e] that I was not mistaken, explains the cashier. When I tell them the total, I almost always have comments. »
“They become aggressive”
760 kilometers away, in the suburbs of Bourges, at the Carrefour Market in Saint-Germain-du-Puy (Cher), the tension even suddenly rose a notch at the time of a settlement. Mireille Richard is working at reception when a colleague at the checkout calls out to her discreetly: “Clients will come to see you, she warns, because they find some exorbitant prices and think that I was wrong. They insulted me, called me incapable, and are convinced that I made a mistake. » Ultimately, “I saw them take a long look at their receipt, and they left, tells Mme richard. With this price increase, people are becoming aggressive, much more than after the Covid. »
For thirty-seven years that she has worked in mass distribution, this 59-year-old woman “know[t] good customers” : in his store, “a rather old and working-class clientele”which now ends up with “full of races of 200 euros, even 300, whereas before it was more like 150 euros”. And that ifmoves that “for this price”they don’t have “nothing in the cart, even though there is neither alcohol nor meat”. Moreover, once their purchases have been paid for, “they stop more and more often behind the tills to check on their ticket what caused the bill to explode, because they can’t believe it”.
You have 69.4% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.