The bill for your summer meals will be particularly steep this year. The prices of the season’s flagship products, crisps like sausages, pastis like rosé, tabbouleh like olive tapenade, mist like sunscreen, have increased significantly. And if there is nothing surprising in this after a year marked by rising prices, the fact remains that these costs continue to weigh heavily on household budgets. And even more, while the summer holidays have just begun. “It’s sad but it’s consistent,” noted Olivier Dauvers, specialist in mass distribution, on Friday, who underlines that consumers “pay a year of inflation” on products whose prices had already increased last year and which have continued to increase this year.
Asked on Franceinfo about the existence or not of a windfall effect from certain distributors who try to sell summer products at a higher price because everyone wants them, he replies that it is effect “of a perception which returns each year at the same time”. And if he confirms that there can “be a form of opportunism” on the part of large retailers, “as everywhere in the economy”, Olivier Dauvers notes above all two particularities. The first is that there are, according to him, “fewer promotions during the summer”, while the second concerns the places of supply for the French on vacation. “The costs of operating a store are higher in tourist areas or in the south of France, the prices are therefore higher there”, he assures in particular.
“The races are more expensive this year, so the summer races will not be an exception to the rule”, also comments Emmanuel Fournet, the analytical director at NiselenIQ, a firm specializing in monitoring consumption, which has been publishing for several months. an inflation basket with France Bleu. “There is no atypical inflation on summer products (…) Inflation concerns all products, it is 15.1% in June 2023 compared to June 2022 Some products that can be associated with summer experience higher than average inflation, others lower. There are different realities,” says Emily Mayer, FMCG expert for Circana.
According to its figures from the last week of June, some summer flagships are particularly affected by inflation. Among them, crisps (whose prices have increased by 24.8% in one year), in particular according to Emily Mayer due to the shortage and the rise in the price of sunflower oil, potatoes or even packaging. But also the ingredients of the summer salad such as canned corn (23.3%) or Mediterranean cheeses such as feta and mozzarella (20.9%). The “barbecue essentials” are not spared either, such as ketchup (19.7%) or chipolata sausages (18.5%).
Other summer products experience high inflation, but still below average. This is the case for canned tuna (14.4%), gazpacho (13.6%), sodas and other soft drinks excluding “Cola” (13.1%), “Cola” type drinks (12 ,3%), flavored wines such as grapefruit rosé (12.2%). The same goes for individual ice cream (16.7%) and bulk ice cream (13.1%). And food products are not the only ones concerned, since insecticide and sunscreen have respectively seen their prices increase by 7.2% and 5.3% in one year.
“Prices are rising globally, flagship products are not spared and there is no family of products that will cost less today than a year ago,” recalls Emily Mayer. The retail expert points out that between the rise in packaging and transport prices and the rise in wages, “even make-up and hairbrushes have suffered strong inflation”. But good news for pastis aficionados: the price increase of aniseed drinks does not exceed 4%.