where to find the cheapest?

The mask is now mandatory in all public places, as an essential barrier measure against the coronavirus. However, it is an addition in the household budget that can be difficult to cash. Olivier Dauvers, specialist in mass distribution, released on his Twitter account a very telling infographic on the price variation of this essential object.

The site Business Insider underlined the most salient information concerning the disparities between the brands. And prices can experience dizzying differences: on April 3, 2021, and out of the 2,808 drives studied, the average price for a box of 50 masks varied between 2.91 euros for the Leclerc distributor and up to 12.90 euros. for Monoprix.

The average price observed at the beginning of April 2021 for a box of 50 surgical masks was 6.56 euros.

Reusable surgical masks

To preserve your budget, you can also reuse your masks by washing them. This is what the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir discovered in November 2020 : anti-coronavirus surgical masks“normally intended to be discarded after 4 h of use, retain very good filtration capacities after 10 machine washes at 60 ° C”. Their analysis was based on 3 models purchased in supermarkets and drugstores. “Their filtration capacities were maintained at a level sufficient for general public use: 100% for one of the surgical workers, 90% for the second and 98% for the comfort mask. The fasteners remained intact. ” a light felting, the washed surgical masks are therefore on an equal footing, and beyond, with the most efficient fabric masks bearing the Afnor / DGA guarantee“, added the investigation.