Since Emmanuel Macron’s speech, many French people have flocked to the supermarkets to stock up on food. This irrational behavior, the risk of shortage being very limited at this stage, found resonance in the Toulouse region. Report in the Carrefour shopping center in Portet-sur-Garonne.
“Impossible to find eggs, milk and flour at Lidl near my home, so I came to get it here”. Céline, Toulousaine and mother of two, fills her shopping cart this Saturday morning at the Carrefour de Portet-sur-Garonne, in the southern suburbs of Toulouse. Neither panicked, nor angry, but surprised. “I know that whatever happens, we will manage,” she nuances.
Behind her, the scene is striking: the ray of eggs, usually so stocked, is almost empty. The milk pack, on the right, is very sparse in places. Walking through the shelves, the facts are clear: oil, flour, sugar, rice, dough, mash … Most of the essentials have been taken by storm. But there is still almost everything, it is important to say.
In this supermarket near Toulouse, some departments are empty.
– Photo DDM – XAVIER DE FENOYL
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“No supply problem”, according to Carrefour
Yet another sign of a French passion for a famous high-calorie hazelnut paste, its department is half empty. “It’s unheard of, says an employee of the brand who unpacks cartons in the egg department. We do what we can with what we have. Monday morning, it should return to normal, but may leave as quickly … “
However, the customers on this Saturday morning are rather quiet. We are a thousand miles from the scenes of near-hysteria, reported by some media, for the day on Friday, the day after Emmanuel Macron’s announcements. Contacted, the Carrefour group explains that it has “strengthened security in certain sensitive stores” at the national level. He also ensures that there is “no problem of supply or transport”.
“People don’t know how to manage themselves”
“We are not going to have to be difficult”, plagues Charlene however. This saleswoman from a store in the shopping mall does her shopping on the pasta shelves with her colleague Elisabete during the lunch break. Bad surprise: his favorite pasta is out of stock: “Good, well, it will be shot with split peas …” Same observation in the mash department: “We will have to settle for a pumpkin mash …”
“Well, at least we have leg razors at home,” jokes Charlene. But basically, it is the annoyance that dominates. “Frankly I hallucinate completely, people do not know how to manage, we must not fall into psychosis, adds his colleague Elisabete. Friday, we saw some who left with two shopping carts per person, we should not have let it go! ” Both are calm about the food supply, however. What worries them is rather the possible closure of their store.
Toilet paper has almost become a scarce commodity in some stores.
– Photo DDM – C. G.
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We tear off toilet paper in some stores
Beyond pasta or flour, the “commodity” that everyone is struggling with in recent days: toilet paper. Supermarket managers at Castanet-Tolosan on Thursday had to intervene to separate customers who were fighting over the last rolls of the aisle. At the end of the morning on Friday, a Castanet store was even closed due to overcrowding.
The management has thus set up filtering “barriers” to allow everyone to do their shopping quietly. In Balma, a supermarket was partially robbed. In the Comminges, no incident, but a witness conceded: “Everyone looks at themselves like a faience dog”. “People create scarcity on their own. Remember that the platforms that supply department stores such as Leclerc or Carrefour hold stocks for three or four months, ”reassures a Haut-Garonne professional.
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