New baguette price sparks ire of some in France
The new price of baguettes at a leading French supermarket is sparking outrage from some.
As of last week, customers in Leclerc stores were greeted with the new baguette price – 29 cents (in Euros).
The president of the Leclerc supermarket chain, Michel-Édouard Leclerc, announced Jan. 11 that baguettes would remain at that price in Leclerc stores across France for a minimum of four months.
“Yes, blocking the price of the baguette at 29 cents is quite a symbol!” Leclerc tweeted Wednesday, officially launching the initiative, adding that: “The baguette is a benchmark for the evolution of prices and purchasing power for consumers.”
That is 10 cents cheaper than Leclerc competitors Intermarché and Super U, and 16 cents less than at Carrefour stores. Meanwhile, the average baguette price in France is 90 cents.
This new price stirred the ire of five key players in the industry that branded the measure as “shameful” and “destructive” in a joint press release signed by the national farmers' union FNSEA, the National Association of French Milling (ANMF), the National Confederation of French Bakery and Pastry shops (CNBPF), the organization representative of the French cereals sector Intercéréales and the General Association of Wheat Producers (AGPB) on Wednesday.
“In France, there are 450,000 people doing all this work in the cereal sector. It’s not just bread, but the whole cereal industry. I think it’s denigrating the whole industry!” the president of Intercéréales Jean-François Loiseau said to ABC News, arguing that “every day, a French person eats 30 cents worth of bread on average. When Leclerc sells his baguette for 29 cents, if I follow the same proportion, it means that he offers the French to eat bread for 10 cents every day. That’s a 20-cent difference every day. Is the subject of purchasing power in France at 20 cents a day, on bread?”
In the joint statement, the five organizations emphasized the difficult circumstances they said they are facing. For many years now, they said they have been fighting to be paid more fairly, while the price of wheat has exploded worldwide in recent months, and production costs are also increasing “strongly.”
Some customers had mixed reactions to the pricing announcement.
To Youssef Aïtbaila, 39, who just bought a baguette at the boulangerie Les Pyramides in Colombes, a northwestern suburb of Paris, Leclerc “is right” because “everything has become very expensive.”
“It’s always good to be able to give everyone access to a cheap baguette because it’s true that bread has increased a lot,” said Emilie Péré, 38, a client and mother of one.
At the Leclerc store across the street, 30-year-old Justine Grangette wasn’t too thrilled about the decision, insisting that it’s part of Michel-Edouard Leclerc’s “mentality” of cutting prices. “Anyway, I will continue to buy from my local baker.”
After an increase in 2021, the purchasing power per household in France is expected to fall by 0.5% in the first half of the year according to an assessement by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee).
Paris Baguette tests new climate-controlled smart lockers
In response to the changing food industry and the rising demand for fast-casual restaurants to meet customers where they are at following the pandemic, Paris Baguette is testing the concept of climate-controlled smart lockers at its Edison, New Jersey location.
With the scan of a QR code, customers can preorder food items from the bakery café and pick them up from designated, chilled or heated lockers at the bakery.
This innovation comes on the heels of Paris Baguette’s announcement of a comprehensive brand redesign. The reimagined approach includes an elevated guest experience through every consumer touchpoint: modern and welcoming café layouts, distinguished brand packaging and an enhanced digital and mobile presence.
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Paris Baguette unveils new brand design
Paris Baguette recently announced a comprehensive brand redesign. The reimagined approach includes an elevated guest experience through every consumer touchpoint: modern and welcoming café layouts, distinguished brand packaging and an enhanced digital and mobile presence.
This comes at a time when the bakery-café chain is projected to open 1,000 new locations in the US by 2030. There are currently more than 90 US locations primarily located on the east and west coasts.
“We believe that every neighborhood deserves to have its very own bakery café and we’re on a mission to make that happen,” says Pete Bell, chief marketing officer for Paris Baguette. “With the brand evolution, we wanted to push beyond the wonderful service and delicious food offerings guests have come to expect and set the stage for exactly what the ideal café experience should look, feel and smell like. Our new design reinforces our goal to create a heartfelt, authentic and detail-oriented atmosphere that sparks moments of joy, community connection and changes our definition of hospitality.”
Each Paris Baguette store will be home to a variety of experiences designed to showcase its master bakers and cakers while being a welcoming invitation to customers. Each location will have an elegant entrance and a window into the cakers at work. French architectural features add eclectic flair with contrasting modern elements surrounded by a palette of blues, soft white textures and dark accents.
This Limited-Edition Fendi Baguette Is the Best Thing to Come Out of ‘And Just Like That’
Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/Courtesy of HBO Max
I won’t use this post to get into my opinions on “And Just Like That,” the new “Sex and the City” reboot on HBO Max, because Lord knows no one’s paying me to be an entertainment critic. What I will say — and what I think we can all agree on — is: My gosh, haven’t a lot of things happened in that show? I mean, I had to stop watching it (I don’t have the stomach for Steve slander, that poor man has suffered enough), but social media has led me to believe that things, in fact, keep happening on that show. And who doesn’t love a show in which things happen?
Anyway, a press release in the Fashionista inbox on Thursday morning has indicated another thing has happened on “And Just Like That,” which has brought me, personally, high-pitched-squealing joy instead of mid-to-heavy cringe, for once: In episode nine, “No Strings Attached,” one Miss Carrie Bradshaw carries another one of her beloved Fendi Baguettes, the early aughts It Bag she near single-handedly turned into a pop culture icon. But this is no ordinary Baguette — no, this is a custom, limited-edition Baguette, designed by Fendi “in partnership with Sarah Jessica Parker” specifically for the reboot.
Photo: Courtesy of Fendi
The Fendi x Sarah Jessica Parker baguette is made of maxi, 3D sequins in a hot pink shade and, if I’m being honest, this is what my soul would probably look like if you tried to give it a physical form. Please only ever use that knowledge for good and not for evil.
If you want to get your hands on this bad boy, it’ll be available for sale on Fendi.com come “mid-February,” per a press release. No word on pricing, but if you’re really trying to channel your inner Carrie, that should be of little importance to you anyway. Who needs rent money when you have designer bags?! (If you’re my landlord, this is legally a joke.)
Congratulations to Fendi for creating the single best thing to come out of “And Just Like That.” You had a good run, “Hey, it’s Che Diaz.”
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