VIDEO. In Saint-Denis, inflation hits the markets hard: “I used to buy in kilograms, now I buy by the piece”

“Due to inflation, we are forced to reduce the quantity! “. Customers interviewed in the Saint-Denis (93) and Gennevilliers (92) markets, which are among the departments most affected by the price increase, came to the same conclusion. To cope with this, they reduced their purchases. ” I don’t want to deprive myself, so I’m reducing the quantity,” says Patrick, a pensioner accustomed to the Saint-Denis market.

Nellie continues to buy groceries from her catering butcher… But “in smaller quantities.” “I used to take a little bigger trays, now I take smaller ones,” explains the pensioner, who just bought two servings of raw vegetables and croque-monsieur for lunch. “I get 1300 euros a month. I can not do it anymore. I even had to take out a loan to be able to eat,” she continues.

A few kilometers away, in the Grecillon market in Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine), Habibe, a nursing home worker and mother of three, also had to change her eating habits. “We must go down! Previously, we did not count the number of fruits that we ate per day. Now it’s a matter of quantity. One orange a day, no more,” she laments. The same with the nurse Mariam, who came to buy vegetables and fish. “I used to buy by the kilo, now by the piece. I pay much more attention. Nothing goes in the trash anymore, life is so precious! “.

A change in consumption practices that has a direct impact on merchants. “Customers have not left, but they are buying less. Before, sea breams, we used to sell about ten cases on Saturdays. And today we don’t even make five boxes…” said Ahmed, a fishmonger at three markets in Ile-de-France.