French supermarkets limit spend to 100 euros

[chessie]

Reports of the uk panic-buying makes me ashamed, and furious at those idiots.

Haven't been to local Intermarche for last 10 days; now running low on bread, milk, yoghurts and other stuff.

Just seen report from a uk french resident who said that some shops are limiting the number of customers in stores at any one time, and that there is a limit of 100 euros spend each time to avoid the stupidity and greed and mass panicking that we're seeing in the UK.

I normally do a 'big' shop, and I'd very much like to do the same tomorrow to avoid having to go out again for another 10 - 14 days.

Anyone know if the 100 euros spend limit is widespread ? Anyone heard of this;  probably a big city solution and not happening out in rural France - but anyone heard or experienced this ?

Was going to volunteer to shop for neighbour, but 100 spend limit might make that difficult.

Chessie

[woolybanana]

Never heard of that. Will report back when I go out. Bit have never spent as much as €100 being too poor, to do so!

[NormanH]

I knew about the limit of 100 people but haven't heard yet of one on spending

https://www.lci.fr/population/coronavirus-vodi-19-2019-ncov-l-herault-limite-l-acces-aux-supermarches-a-100-personnes-2148127.html

[idun]

A friend told me that her local supermarket had a limit of 40 in at a time, so I suppose that it would depend on the m2 of the supermarket.

Isn't a 100€ a lot? sounds it to me, even for a big shop, but I am no longer used to french prices.

[NormanH]

When Géant Casino delivered in Béziers from online orders the minimum spend was €150...

[Alan Zoff]

Other people clearly spend a lot more on groceries than I do

[Judith-aka-Judith]

Even before the current crisis, my supermarket bill was sometimes approaching 100€, and in that last two, bigger than normal I will admit, shop, because we cannot go out to eat now, it was much more than 100€. I do not scrimp on buying decent quality meat, and it did include wine ... and a lot of bread and cakes, but no more than I buy in any standard week as that is what hubby gets through in a week.  I have otherwise tried to buy as normal, though I did buy larger amounts of such as eggs, because I am on temporary crowns and cannot eat anything too hard at present, so had to find alternatives to my usual foods, such as salads and meat and veg!!

[PaulT]

In an article on BBC News they stated that a lot of people get their lunch and snacks at work. If they are not working and / or reduction in number of places to buy lunch etc then they will be buying this from supermarkets and therefore increasing the amount bought.

[chessie]

All good, interesting points, especially about people - now they're not working and unable to buy lunch from various places, then yes - they'll be doing larger food shops.

One other point that the media hysteria seems to overlook is that people have been told to self-isolate - to not go out.   In which case of course they'll want to 'stock up' to carry them over a week or 10 days, as long as possible.   So joe public is damned for going out to stock up, and then damned for so-called panic buying.

Wish there was more nuanced balanced news from the media. 

As for my big shop of over 100 euros - in fairness that's to last 10 - 14 days; although I suppose if I didn't buy the 3 or 4 boxes of wine I could spend less.......!!!!!!!

Thanks for chat everyone

Chessie

(I've been on another french forum for 'chats' as well - my crumbs talk about unfriendly over there; at least here there's reasonable chat, and nice people.....help keep me sane - thanks everyone   )

[NormanH]

We don't always agree but the least we can do is to be nice[:)]

[idun]

OK, booze, well I was in the supermarket last Friday when the announcement was made about closing the pubs.

I noticed the staff being busy bees around the beer area and asked why and they told me.

I rang my husband and he said to buy  6 bottles of Black Sheep (beer, for those who don't know). So I did. Got to the counter and was told that I was limited to three items. So three bottles, which I paid for. The bloke at the next till had three boxes of 12 beers and he was OK. I pointed out that it was rather ridiculous that he had 36 bottles and I had three, but they said it was 'by unit'.

I took my shopping to the car and went back in and bought the other three bottles......... hardly excessive, was it???? They were the last three bottles by then incidentally.

Yes, I understand now,  booze can increase shopping bill sizes. I rarely drink and usually don't  think of buying any, but Friday's announcement was a prompt to call OH.

I suspect that I am a cheapskate with regards to shopping, but we do eat very well on the way I do things[Www]

[Alan Zoff]

Same here, Idun.

We spend far less on food than our kids and eat far better. Just can't seem to convince them that they don't need to buy takeaways and shop-bought snacks - take a home-prepared packed lunch to work instead and bank the savings.

Falls on deaf ears, I'm afraid.

[Lori]

Alan - your kids must be cut from the same cloth as our daughter.