Inflation: Michel-Édouard Leclerc questions Senate study on rising prices
The distributor claims that the Senate, in its “cleverness,” missed some price manipulation operations.
Michel-Édouard Leclerc was the first to call for a parliamentary inquiry into the causes of inflation in supermarkets and is now questioning its conclusions. At the invitation of FranceInfo on Monday, the retailer revisited this file and in particular the opinion of the senators who dealt with the price increases on the shelves.
Around a month ago, with the war in Ukraine and the cascading rise in prices, Michel-Édouard Leclerc had urged elected officials to look more closely at the potential impact of the opportunity on the part of actors who would benefit from the context to artificially raise prices. After several weeks of scrutiny, the Senate has presented its report, the conclusions of which contradict the arguments of the President of the Strategic Committee of E.Leclerc’s businesses. “No massive phenomenon of suspicious increases in supplier prices was observed […]. Of course, there may be some one-off deadweight gains, but no regular separation between these two phenomena has been observed that would unjustifiably push up inflation levels.“Write the senators in their report released last week.
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The elected officials also gave the distributors the buck and suggested they could apply.Sales price increases on their shelves, even though they had not signed an increase in the purchase price of the product with the supplier“. A conclusion criticized by Michel-Édouard Leclerc, who claimed that in his “wisdom», «The Senate says it hasn’t seen manipulation, but consumers have. In particular, the expert cited the case of sunflower oil, which “come back“On the Shelves”when there was no harvest» since the beginning of the shortage of this product, most of which is imported from Ukraine.
Gasoline at cost price
Moreover, while the issue of inflation is fueling tensions around purchasing power, Michel-Édouard Leclerc announced that the group’s shopping centers would be operating from this Thursday and on the occasion of the crossover weekend on the holiday routeGasoline at cost price“. In other words, the distributor will not make any margin during this period. This operation will undoubtedly bethe last» Of the kind, the distributor warned, the climate law passed in the previous five-year periods provided for the ban on extraction and reduction work on fossil fuels. This regulation should come into effect at the end of August. In view of rising energy prices, Michel-Édouard Leclerc is calling for this date to be postponed.
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In any case, the war in Ukraine will have to put a strain on the energy supply in France. “We planned a scenario where Russia stops exporting and Germany needs help‘ argues the dealer. In this scenario, it does not rule out closing the signs at certain times to use less energy, or keeping the bread ovens off during critical hours of energy use.
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