French supermarket chain launches shameful campaign against consumer goods manufacturers

Carrefour started to paste stickers on products whose sizes have become smaller but whose prices have increased even more. It is noted that these manufacturers increase their prices even after raw material prices drop. It was done with the intention of shaming brands for their practices.

It is interesting that the retail chain Carrefour is currently preparing for negotiations with the world’s largest brands, which will start soon and end on October 15.

“Of course, the purpose of branding these products is to tell manufacturers to review their pricing policies,” Carrefour representative Stéphane Bompé said in an interview.

“Carrefour” general manager Aleksandrs Bompārs, who is also chairman of the retail industry lobby group FDC, has repeatedly stated that “suppliers of consumer goods do not want to cooperate in reducing the prices of thousands of essential products, taking into account the price drop.” raw material prices.”

In this regard, the supermarket chain is also supported by French Finance Minister Bruno Lemeur, who gathered a large group of 75 retailers and consumers at the Ministry of Finance in June and called for lower prices.

After a regular meeting in September, Lemaire said Unilever, Nestlé and PepsiCo were among the companies that ignored calls to encourage price cuts.

Since Monday, Carrefour has marked 26 products in its stores in France with labels that read: “The volume or weight of this product has decreased, but the actual price from the supplier has increased.”

For example, Carrefour announced that the volume of PepsiCo’s peach-flavored Lipton Ice Tea bottle was reduced from 1.5 liters to 1.25 liters, increasing the actual price per liter by 40%.

Nestlé’s Guigoz baby food was reduced from 900 grams to 830 grams, and Unilever’s Viennetta ice cream cake was reduced from 350 grams to 320 grams.

Lindt’s “Chocolat Au Lait Extra Fin” is one of three products from the branded Swiss chocolate maker available in French stores.

“Lindt & Sprüngli increased prices across the group by an average of 9.3%, taking into account local cost structures,” a Lindt representative told Reuters.

“We have taken joint measures to offset the increase in costs. We have increased efficiency where possible. Costs that we cannot cover on our own have to be borne by customers, who feel this in the form of price increases.”

PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever declined to comment on the situation.

Consumer protection groups claim that so-called “degrowth” (from shrinkage – contraction and inflation) is a common practice and that it is also the fault of supermarkets with their private label products.

France, like other European countries, is trying to ease the burden on consumer spending due to inflation that has been increasing for months.