Orange with media services, Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2022, at 07:00
Between environmental awareness and the high cost of paper, many retail chains have decided to reduce the stand in terms of flyers, when it is not a matter of simply removing it.
It’s the end of an era. E.Leclerc, a leading food retailer, announced this week in Parisian It will no longer distribute leaflets to mailboxes from September 2023. “Of course, there are commercial risks. But finally, saving 50,000 tons of paper per year, it can only be beneficial in terms of CO2 emissions and carbon emissions“, Commented on franceinfo Michel Edouard Leclerc, Chairman of the Strategic Committee of E.Leclerc Centers. An important announcement given the weight of more than 700 stores under its brand.
E.Leclerc is not the first to announce the end of leaflets in its stores. Quora supermarkets have done the same, with effect from January 10, 2023, And the Casino group brandsFranprix and Monoprix, which are very well established in cities where prospectus matters less than in rural areas, They haven’t distributed it for several years.
All brands have already lowered their sails. Carrefour intends to switch to “80%” of its catalogs digital “from 2024”The group specifies that it has discontinued distribution in Paris and Lyon, but makes it clear that it is “against waste, not against the catalog,” and says it mails a paper catalog to customers who have ordered it. At Intermarche, 240 of its 1,850 stores will go fully digital in January.
from his side, System U President Dominic Schilcher said this week that it will reduce the number of initial deployments by 30% in the first half of 2023, But he does not intend to stop completely explaining You want to “leave free choice to the customer”. He said, “I might suppose I am the last to still file a prospectus.”
What are the motives?
This movement responds to three drivers, believes Laurent Landel, president of Bonial, which stores sell digital communications solutions to consumers.
“Initially, environmental awareness of consumersand then “Unbearable inflation in the cost of pulp”. Because, at about 20 cents per leaflet, it is a real budget, which is calculated in “hundreds of thousands of euros” for a single hypermarket. last point, The digital hack that moved the information channel that represented the letterbox into the background.
Why do some persist?
You only need to look at the comments on E.Leclerc’s Facebook page to understand the reluctance of some shopkeepers to do without flyers. “It’s good, but it’s still early for some” seniors, says one user, while another judges the “harm” decision. “I love watching and comparing, a few relaxing moments in the evening.”
“We have already begun to reduce flyers, for environmental reasons but also for economic reasons,” a System U spokesman explains to AFP for his part. “In the city, it is true that a customer who does not have a car will not enjoy comparing prices with the store located 5 km away. But in rural areas, where the store may be in his area to meet a lot of competition,” the merchant is allowed to “express himself, to exist,” he justifies. Himself. Plus, not all flyers are equal, he believes, citing a Christmas catalog that “can be used to send a letter to Santa Claus” as an example.
What are the consequences?
Movement seems inevitable, notes Claude Charbin, managing director of the Dékuple agency specializing in digital communications. “When you see a few people putting up a ‘yes pub’ sticker in areas where the device is being tested…” This 31-month trial under the Climate and Resilience Act 2021 takes place in about fifteen municipalities or community municipalities . Print advertising is prohibited from being distributed by default, unless consumers have put the words “Oui pub” in their mailbox. Auchan confirms that this device “accelerates” the digitization of bulletins.
There are still many ways to reach loyal or potential customers. “The show, the radio, why not the TV,” Claude Sharpen enumerates. Not to mention the online presence or “promotional communications via email and SMS”.
This is no match for the flyer sector, which has already been hit socially and which weighs about 20,000 direct jobs. In addition, digital communications are “far from neutral in terms of carbon emissions,” notes Bonial’s Laurent Landel.
As part of the “Oui Pub” experiment, Ademe is to conduct a study “comparing the environmental impact of advertising campaigns via print distribution and those implemented digitally”. The agency told AFP that the expected result is in the second half of 2024.
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