Inflation brutally returned in France for almost two years. It started with energy, then spread to food products. According to INSEE (French statistics), from the last quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2023, shelf prices increased by 18.4%.

Faced with this unprecedented outbreak, households have reacted, writes Les Echos. During the same period, French food expenditure increased by only 4.2%.

A study published at the end of July by Nielsen shows that a third of French people say they are cutting back on food and other staples. “Baskets are smaller, purchases are made daily, not weekly,” the study said.

Thus, between the last quarter of 2021 and the second quarter of 2023, food purchases in France fell by 11.4% by volume. “This drop in food consumption is unprecedented in data collected by INSEE since 1980,” writes François Gerolf, an economist at the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE), on X (formerly Twitter).

“Our sales are suddenly falling in volume, this is a sign that the French are tightening their belts in anticipation of salaries. There are households that are skipping more and more meals,” says the head of the retail giant.

Forced to revise their budget, households put fewer and fewer products in the basket. Consumer habits have also changed: the high level of prices prompted a switch to cheaper goods – private brands, promotions – or to a switch to brands of a lower quality assortment, but cheaper. According to Nielsen, nearly 20% of consumers prefer to shop locally to limit their use of the car.

According to sociologist Julien Damon, the middle class is the most affected by “this shock”, because it is its representatives who “have to change their consumption habits”, he explained in an interview for “Echos”.

But inflation has increased significantly, and food insecurity among the most vulnerable has increased significantly. In 2022 alone, the demand for aid increased by 9%, with 2.4 million people supported through the Food Bank network.

However, due to rising prices, all categories suffer. In an Ifop survey last June, more than half of respondents (53%) said they stopped buying a certain food item “often”, while more than a quarter (28%) said they regularly skipped meals.