It is 10:30 a.m. in Roncq, and the parking lot of the Auchan supermarket is full to bursting. Out of a row of 12 cars parked there, eight have Belgian license plates. One of them, white, bends dangerously, to the point of skimming the ground. A glance through the rear window reveals what causes the suspension to flinch: liters and liters of water pile up in the trunk and on the back seat.
France is the European country which still suffers the least from inflation. In August, it even fell to 5.8%, according to INSEE figures. This moderate increase in the cost of living, the French owe it to their government and to the “tariff shield” which blocks the prices of gas and electricity. In Belgium, where inflation is close to 10%, filling your shopping cart therefore costs much more.
A price list, for comparison
Belgian consumers are easily recognized. They somehow maneuver their heavy shopping trolley in the parking lot, their faces often flushed, focused on a single objective: to reach the trunk of their car with their loot for the day. Or dozens of bottles of water, liters of sodas, a remarkable amount of sparkling wine, not to mention washing powder. These are the great classics for which Belgians have been crossing the border for years. But more and more newcomers are inviting themselves into their Shopping Carts: crisps, small cakes, dessert creams, pasta, oil and toilet paper, for example. Because now everything, or almost, has become cheaper in our southern neighbours.
Angela Callaert walks around the marquee set up in front of Auchan, a list in hand. Not a commission list, no, but a belg supermarket price list
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Source of the article
The standard (Bruxelles)Launched in 1918, the reference newspaper of the Flemish establishment gradually distanced itself from the Catholic world as well as from the Flemish movement – and, more particularly, from the Flemish Social Christian Party, in power in Belgium from 1945 to 1999.
From its first issue, on December 4, 1918, the upper part of the cover presented the cross drawing the letters LAWYER–Presale (“Everything for Flanders, Flanders for Christ”, “Everything for Flanders, Flanders for Christ”). This mention disappeared in 1999, in order to renovate and rejuvenate the readership.
The standardwhich proposes to provide information “reliable, independent and of quality”, undertook a major overhaul in 2007: it reduced its format, modernized its graphic identity and adapted to the digital context.
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