France: row over cheap Nutella
The French supermarket chain Intermarché unleashed chaos and brawling in its stores with a 70 percent discount on the price of Nutella. France's Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire has called for stricter regulations on discounts. What consequences does the discount war have?
Senseless offers won't become the norm
The market will regulate itself, economist Jean-François Caulier writes in Contrepoints:
“Intermarché misjudged its customer demand. The chain could have raised the price (not lowered it so much, that is) and it would still have been able to get rid of its whole stock, but without long queues and tussling and with a higher profit margin. Intermarché has cheated itself out of revenues. ... We need neither investigations nor new rules. The fierce competition between supermarkets will soon bring Intermarché back to the logic of maximising profit and put an end to its exaggerated special offers.”
Deadly sweet products
Politicians must finally start campaigning for better quality food products, the weekly magazine Marianne urges:
“In order to conceal low quality with the illusion of tastiness the low-cost food companies fill their products with sugar, fat and salt products, which leads to overconsumption. Obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol levels and cancer - bad food is a killer. The consequences of the cheap nut cream and the illnesses it causes affect above all the poor. Another problem is that the bill, which makes the pharmaceutical lobby richer, is paid for from public coffers. It is therefore essential that after the end of the consultations on food quality standards and prices and after Macron's speech to representatives of the agricultural industry, words are followed by deeds.”