While inflation continues to rise in France, some consumers are seeing the amount of their receipt increase. And this, because certain products are particularly affected by the rise in prices.
Your eating habits haven’t changed, but the amount on your receipt has? Inflation has probably gone through it. For several months, this has been steadily increasing in France and particularly accelerated in April, reaching 2.67% for consumer products and “self-service fees”, according to NielsenIQ, a company specializing in the analysis of consumer behavior. A significant increase when compared to 1.26% last March and 0.52% in February 2022. According to the site LSA Conso, 93% of product categories sold in supermarkets are affected by these increases. And while an explosion in the price of tomatoes is predicted for this summer, certain foodstuffs are already heavily impacted by these increases. Like the category “meat-poultry-charcuterie”.
In April, the prices of these products rose by 5.23%, making this category the most affected by inflation. It is also observed that oil (2.96%), the roasted coffee (2.88%), the chicory and soluble coffee (2.72%), or even the paper towel (2.59%) are in the categories most affected by inflation. Other daily products are added to the list of these strong increases, such as sugar (2.32%), butter and fresh cream (2.32%), flour (2.12%) as well as toilet paper (2.11%). Animal feed also recorded an increase of 2.14%. “Inflation will remain high in 2022 because there is an energy crisis”thus warned the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, on April 22, 2022 on BFMTV.
Organic shunned because of inflation
While a reversal of the trend is not expected before 2023, some consumers have completely changed their habits. Thus, the big brands and the organic sector have seen their sales drop considerably in favor of products “first price”. Many people have gone downmarket in this way to “monitoring a constrained budget”, underlines BFMTV. But if food is affected by inflation, the same is true for household appliances, such as hair dryers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and even smartphones.