The Covid-19 pandemic has changed French consumption habits: drive, click and collect consumers have had to adapt. Many of them have decided to go to local shops. This is the case in Saint-Jean-de Vedas, near Montpellier.
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What if the health crisis did not only have negative effects?
In this fruit and vegetable business in Saint-Jean-de Védas, over the past year, customers have grown in number and turnover has even increased by around 30%.
“We had more people, new customers, people who now consume differently to make local businesses work”, notes Eva Canovas, employee of “Vic’s Garden”.
Increase in turnover
To manage this new clientele, the family business even calls on an apprentice. The Covid crisis has changed our habits, and faced with supermarkets, consumers now prefer small traders.
To make good soups and taste good cheeses, I do my shopping in local shops and I separate my shopping, which I did not do before.
Nathalie is used to local shops but since last March in solidarity, she goes there much more often.
During the holidays, I ordered from my greengrocer and my butcher products that I might have taken elsewhere before the health crisis.
In the center of the village, the florist also draws a positive assessment. Jéremy closed his business for three weeks during the first containment and gave all his flowers in stock. A net loss at the start but finally offset by the arrival of new customers. “At first I was scared and then I had customers who used to go to supermarkets “, note Jeremy Raby Oliveira,
florist.
A pleasant surprise in this difficult period, its turnover jumped by around 34%.
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