With bread prices drifting down while everything else climbs, France’s most famous loaf is accused of not taking the cost-of-living crisis seriously.
PARIS, France (The Paris Fool) – Bakers across the capital are being asked to explain why bread and cereals fell 0.4 percent over the past year while tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines and peppers rose by a startling 35.8 percent, in what a growing number of shoppers describe as the baguette’s refusal to take part in a national emergency.
The Figures Nobody Ordered
According to a breakdown of the official statistics, fresh fruit rose 9.9 percent, fresh food overall climbed 9.5 percent and other vegetables, such as carrots, leeks and garlic, rose 5.6 percent. Total food, on the other hand, rose only 1.4 percent, the sort of average that hides a tomato salad with a mortgage.
Headline inflation then reached 3.4 percent in October, a near three-year high, with energy doing most of the pushing. Analysts blame higher transport costs and a summer drought, which means the humble tomato has effectively gone through a heat wave and then been invoiced for it.
Why the Baguette Is Suspiciously Calm
Comedian Basile Girard, who does a Tuesday night show above a boulangerie in the 11th arrondissement, says the loaf has become a symbol of denial. “Everything is on fire, and the baguette is just standing there in its paper sleeve like a man who has not read the news. It is the only thing in France without a grievance, and honestly that is why people distrust it.”
Inside the trade, the picture is more nervous. A spokesperson for a body called the Federation of Reassuring Breads, Colette Vasseur, said the product was “extremely aware” of the situation. “The baguette has chosen dignity over margin,” she said. “It will hold the line until it can no longer afford the flour, at which point it will simply become shorter.”
A Shopper’s Guide to the New Pricing Order
A survey of 400 Parisian households found that 62 percent now treat tomatoes as a special-occasion food, 18 percent have started to refer to peppers by their first names, and 9 percent were seen photographing an aubergine in the shop “for later.” One shopper in the 15th reported selecting a single courgette, carrying it through the supermarket in both hands and being asked by a security guard whether it was a ring bearer.
- Fruiting vegetables: up 35.8 percent, now sold in a velvet-lined tray at some market stalls.
- Fresh fruit: up 9.9 percent, with a growing black market in clementines.
- Bread and cereals: down 0.4 percent, an outcome the loaf has declined to explain.
- Eggs and dairy: up 0.2 percent, which cheese counters call “an insult to the vintage.”
Supermarkets, Senators and the Healthy Basket
Parliament has meanwhile been discussing a bill that would require large stores to stock at least 80 “healthy” products at near-cost prices, an idea that supermarkets and a Senate commission have criticised. Retail executives argue that 80 products is far too many, citing an internal study, titled Where Will We Put Them?, which concluded that shelf space is the most precious thing in France after cheese.
The fertiliser industry is facing its own headaches, and one agricultural site recently reported that experts suggest complimenting the corn as input costs rise. Parisians, who have long complimented their tomatoes without any visible effect, say they will try it from the other side of the counter. The editors at bohiney.com, who have lived through enough price shocks to know a trend when they see one, advise buying bread, eating the bread and perhaps keeping the tomatoes as a long-term asset.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/