COVID-19 self-tests are selling for a high price, and Leclerc intends to take his share of the pie! However, the leading supermarket chain in the French market is hitting hard by offering its tests at cost price. To know everything about this novelty, and the very attractive price of these tests, follow the article Objeko has concocted for you to the end!
Leclerc: the champion of mass distribution
Leclerc is more than just a business. It is a giant of employment in France! The company was founded in 1949 by Édouard Leclerc, in Landerneau, Brittany. Back then, supermarkets were brand new, imported from the American way of life.
Leclerc developed very quickly, and experienced a real economic boom from the 1960s and 1970s. The company now has more than 133,000 staff in its workforce. However, it should be noted that since 1962 most of the brands have been independent. These are franchisees, who get their supplies from the E.Leclerc Center Purchasing Group (GALEC).
Leclerc has evolved a lot over time. In particular, the company has developed more affordable products under its brand. We are particularly thinking of the Marque Repère and Eco + products. This allows the supermarket to remain competitive in the face of the arrival in particular of discount brands such as Lidl and Aldi.
Some 73 years after its creation, the small company of Landerneau is the leader in France, with a 16.4% market share, and a turnover of 48.2 billion euros in 2019. And this no is not finished! From food to clothing, from high-tech products to jewelry, the company is on all fronts. And she begins to attack the drugstore market …
Leclerc and its self-tests sold at cost price
If there is money to be made, you can count on Leclerc to try to grab his share! We all remember this of the sign dating from 2013, which then caused a scandal. It was indeed an uninhibited lobbying to position public opinion in their favor regarding the sale of non-reimbursed drugs in their drugstores. They had also taken an outcry, and had also made a flop. The government did not give in to blackmail.
If Leclerc does not sell drugs, they do sell a lot of products in their drugstores. And now self-tests! These COVID-19 tests are very convenient for those who want to meet their peers without taking any risks. The only problem ? Their prohibitive price! Indeed, count from 4 to 5 euros per unit in pharmacies! Unfortunately, at this crippling price, many French people prefer not to test themselves and therefore take risks. Olivier Véran lifted the pharmacists’ monopoly on the sale of these tests, and Leclerc stepped into the breach.
The brand now offers its self-tests for the modest sum of 1.24 euros per unit. The sign said: “As happened with the masks, the opening of the market to competition is lowering the prices of self-tests. Our buyers are getting more and more competitive prices ”. The representatives of the sign specified that “Opening up to competition benefits the consumer”, and for once, we quite agree with them!
The other supermarkets in the niche, the pharmacists in panic
It is not only Leclerc who has seized this juicy market of self-tests. His competitors Also ! Carrefour also offers a box of five tests, sold at 9.75 euros. This therefore amounts to 1.95 euros per test, which is always half the price of a pharmacy. As for Systeme U, the brand is a direct competitor to Leclerc in terms of price. Their supermarkets sell a box of 5 tests at 6.20 euros per box, or 1.24 euros per test.
The Order of Pharmacists is obviously indignant at the opening up to competition of the sale of self-testing for COVID-19. In addition to the big shortfall that this represents, the organization declared this decision “incomprehensible and risky for public health” and clarified: “We are not playing with the health of the French”.
However, let’s not be fooled. Faced with Leclerc and the other supermarkets, their fight is lost in advance … To know if the Order of Pharmacists was right or not, we will have to wait a little longer. But by then it will obviously be too late.