Carrefour removes all Pepsi and Lay’s products from its shelves
If you have ever been to France, there is almost a 100 percent chance that you have also been to Carrefour; France’s largest supermarket chain, with gigantic stores. I always think it’s a treat to walk around here, because they really have everything. Well, almost everything… You will no longer find Pepsi and Lay’s products there, at least.
Because they have all been removed from Carrefour’s shelves. Pepsi, 7up, Lay’s, Doritos… It’s all gone. And the reason is particularly remarkable, as is the fact that a supermarket is making this decision.
Carrefour: ‘Unacceptable’
‘We will no longer sell this brand because of an unacceptable price increase. We apologise for the inconvenience,’ reads the signs that have been hanging in front of the empty shelves since yesterday (4 January 2024). This concerns all PepsiCo products. I could personally manage perfectly well without Pepsi, but I only found out today that Lay’s, Doritos, Lipton and, for example, Quaker’s muesli also belong to that company. And panic has naturally broken out now, because Carrefour is a very large buyer of PepsiCo products in France.
Carrefour Belgium has already indicated that it is very likely to follow suit by removing all PepsiCo products from its shelves. Spokespeople for both countries are happy to point to their own-brand products as ‘affordable alternatives’. Personally, I think it is a very welcome new development that supermarkets are drawing a firm line at certain price increases, because we have all noticed that groceries have become considerably more expensive. Of course, you always have the option of choosing an own-brand product, but I can only applaud this strong measure.
Accelerated negotiations
This Carrefour boycott could be short-lived, because the companies are urgently sitting down together. These talks were already scheduled for 1 March, but Carrefour’s measures have accelerated things: they have now been given a deadline between 15 and 31 January to reach a deal together. This was decided by the French government, which hopes that lower raw-material prices (such as oil and grain) will soon be reflected in PepsiCo’s products.
PepsiCo has since responded: ‘We are hopeful that our products will remain available.’ I am not so sure, because the company has not exactly been doing very well by consumers lately. For example, it reduced the size of its packaging while keeping the price the same (shrinkflation!). Even worse, it announced that there would be ‘modest’ price increases because of inflation.
Carrefour clearly did not consider those price increases very modest. I actually hope that Dutch supermarkets will follow this example; that they will draw a firm line when a price increase really goes too far. Then we’ll just have to do without crisps.
