Emmanuel Macron's request has been heard. Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the group of stores of the same name, announced on Tuesday that 750 service stations in its hypermarkets will sell gasoline daily "at cost price" from September 29. "It clearly means no profit and every day, not just on weekends as in our previous operations," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
From 29 September, the 750 petrol stations in @Leclerc hypermarkets will sell petrol daily "at cost price". It clearly means no profit and every day, not just on weekends as in our previous operations. pic.twitter.com/nwTZYRyp1N
— Michel-Edouard Leclerc (@Leclerc_MEL) September 26, 2023
This announcement comes in the middle of the debate on the cap on the price of gasoline. After having requested, without success, that the fuel be sold at a loss, the government meets this Tuesday in Matignon the actors of the sector to ask them to make sales "at cost price". "Everyone must take their part," insisted Elisabeth Borne, who invited refiners, distributors and professional federations to rue de Varenne at 17:30 p.m., with the aim of "making transparency on their margins and asking for their reduction".
"Cost operations" in other supermarkets
The objective is to lower the bill of the French in the midst of inflation. Michel-Édouard Leclerc declares to respond to "the call of the President" and speaks of an "act of solidarity with all customers frightened by the increases and whose purchasing power is very impacted". But if this initiative is "built to last", it will have to be "reassessed or adapted" according to fuel supply conditions, he said.
The president of Système U stores, Dominique Schelcher, assured BFMTV / RMC this Tuesday morning that "fuel operations at cost price" were also planned in his stores. "We did it this summer, we do it again on the first weekend of October and there will be a complementary commitment, but it cannot be permanently," he said. Intermarché had already announced the launch of an operation of this type once a month, in some of its service stations and until the end of the year.
Beyond the sale at cost price, Emmanuel Macron announced the renewal in 2024 of the "workers' fuel allowance". This aid has not convinced the opponents of the head of state, who denounce a "policy of checks" and call in chorus for tax cuts.
