Inflation has been on consumers’ minds for much of the past two years. But when one of Europe’s largest grocers removes products from its range at inflated prices, you know it’s really happening – and that it’s hurting shoppers.
But after pulling PepsiCo products such as Doritos and Pepsi from its shelves due to their “unacceptable” prices, French supermarket Carrefour has finally buried the hatchet.
Europe’s largest grocer has brought PepsiCo products back to its store shelves in France Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
“It’s nice to see friends again that we haven’t seen for a long time,” Carrefour CEO Alexandre de Palmas said in a post on X on Wednesday while holding a bottle of Pepsi.
It was a pleasure to meet friends who were unavailable to them after a long time @pepsicofrance pic.twitter.com/0ACITgCmI1
— Alexandre de Palmas (@a_depalmas) April 3, 2024
The battle between the two giants has been heating up for several months now. Last year Carrefour slapped “Shrinkflation” warnings. on products from companies like Nestle, Unilever and of course PepsiCo to denounce their practices. It was part of the store’s effort to keep prices as low as possible, even as brands in turn raise prices. The downside is that grocers face pressure their marginsto.
At the turn of the year, the French food chain PepsiCo took over products off the shelves in response to inflation at a time when consumer incomes were under pressure. The two argued about what led to its fallout – while Carrefour said it was resisting contractionary inflation, PepsiCo argued it was because contract negotiations had gone wrong. It’s still unclear what transpired between the food and beverage brand and the supermarket chain, but it was telling that PepsiCo products were not on Carrefour’s shelves.
A PepsiCo spokesperson said Assets The company said it was “pleased to have reached an agreement and looks forward to seeing our products return to Carrefour shelves for people to enjoy again.”
The tug-of-war between companies and grocers over pricing issues has led to such cases in the past. In the UK, for example, Tesco stopped stocking Kraft Heinz baked beans, ketchup and tomato soup in 2022 due to pricing disputes. Manufacturers have tried to justify price increases in the face of inflation as a necessary evil to cover production costs. However, retail chains argue that the measure hurts customers and their ability to buy staples.
Across Europe, crackdowns on price hikes have increased recently – with the UK competition watchdog warning supermarkets for profit from price increases. Luckily for supermarkets, prices are falling, meaning less time and resources need to be spent dealing with rising food and drink prices. Governments are also taking a different approach approaches to make up part of the price difference.
Details of the agreement between PepsiCo and Carrefour are not yet known.
Carrefour representatives did not immediately respond AssetsRequest for comments.