Carrefour decides to stop selling Pepsi due to increased prices

French grocery retailer Carrefour has announced that it will stop selling Pepsi products in its stores in France due to "unacceptable price increases." The decision will impact products including Pepsi soda, Doritos, and Quaker cereals. Carrefour started putting up signs in its stores to inform customers about this change. Pepsi has not yet responded to the announcement. This disagreement arises as France continues to struggle with rapidly increasing food prices. According to the latest report from the government statistics agency, food prices in December rose by 7.1% compared to the previous year. To address this issue, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had previously urged major food companies to reduce prices or potentially face special taxes on excessive profits. The government also accelerated the deadline for price negotiations between food companies and supermarkets to January 15th. Pepsi has been raising prices in recent years, citing rising costs as the reason. In October, the company stated its expectations for further price hikes in 2024. Additionally, Pepsi has been accused of "shrinkflation," a practice where the size of product packaging is reduced while prices remain unchanged. Carrefour, the second-largest supermarket in France, has been at the forefront of opposing this practice. In September, Carrefour posted signs about "shrinkflation" on certain products, including Lipton Ice Tea, a brand owned by Pepsi. A spokesperson for Carrefour explained that the new signs on Pepsi products state, "we are no longer selling this brand due to unacceptable price increases." However, despite the disagreement, French customers will still be able to purchase Pepsi products that are currently on the shelves. While public price disputes are unusual, they have occurred before. In 2022, Tesco had a conflict with Kraft Heinz regarding price rises for staple food items like baked beans, ketchup, and tomato soup. Similarly, German retailers Edeka and Rewe stopped selling certain products from Mars due to price hikes. Edeka also had a dispute with Pepsi last year, and a standoff between Mondelez, the maker of Milka chocolate, and Belgian supermarket Colruyt resulted in a shortage of supply.