Posted on 12/29/2011 5:57:53 PM PST by Nachum
"We’re experiencing the beginning of the repercussions of the financial crisis,” said Michel-Edouard Leclerc on Wednesday during an interview on Europe 1, France’s largest radio network. He is the CEO of the second largest retailer in France, E. Leclerc, a privately owned cooperative association with 555 stores—mostly hypermarkets—in France and 117 stores in other countries.
Sounding like a CEO one minute and like a populist presidential candidate the next, he emphasized that his company has done relatively well in 2011, sales being up 5%. Strategy: offer deals and cut prices. The whole industry, he said, “ate up inflation” with their margins, but his stores were particularly aggressive as shoppers have become less spontaneous and much more concerned about price. In his 30 years in the industry, he has never seen so much “rational behavior among consumers” and so much “fear of getting screwed.”
Until now, the financial crisis of 2008 has touched mostly the financial world, he said, but in 2012, it would impact the real economy. “I’m very worried,” he said. All the "stupidities" going on before the financial crisis, the speculative building bubble in the suburbs of Madrid or in Florida, or the "Madoffs" all over the place, there was so much waste, but... “It’s always the people who end up paying.”
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Oh, but the ratings agencies are their best friend when it’s the USA they’re derating.
France has a pretty good chance of getting downgraded soon, like maybe even this weekend. This weekend is a national holiday across most of the world. Plenty of opportunity to have a bad news dump, take over some banks, have a bank holiday, etc. I would be surprised if this weekend passes quietly.
LeClerc is more concerned about his own business than national-level economies. the LeClerc chain is one of the 3 big French supermarket chains that have successfully globalised - the others being Carrefour and Auchan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.