The European retail industry is beginning to face the very genuine prospect that air conditioning and heating will simply be cut off and business hours reduced while the sector literally runs out of petrol.
With heat waves and record temperatures that have recently burned much of Europe and prompted strict restrictions on fuel as Russia continues to cut supplies, the industry is in favor of restrictions for warmer and colder weather.
Last week, the head of France’s main food chain, Leclerc, warned that the supermarket chain, France’s largest food store, could reduce sales hours at its retail outlets this fall as part of emergency measures to deal with the threat of power shortages due to the war in Ukraine.
It’s for the future. At present, the challenge is that it is suffocating in many parts of Europe and that French investors lately intend to keep their doors closed while their air conditioner is on, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, French Minister of Ecological Transition, recently announced.
Having the air conditioner on with the doors open can result in “20% more consumption,” Runacher told French radio RMC, calling such a scenario “absurd” given Europe’s existing energy source.
Point-of-sale air conditioning has been a key target of energy rationing recommendations in France and across Europe. In France, as in other European countries, domestic air conditioning is uncommon, installed in less than 5% of French families, for example.
Regarding the colder months, CHIEF Executive Michel-Edouard Leclerc told France Info radio: “For this winter, we have a crisis situation in which Russia cuts off the fuel supply. We closed some department stores at certain times. “
Most supermarkets have already jointly agreed on their electricity consumption. Heating will be turned off, lighting fixtures will be dimmed and screens will be turned off after the last hour as part of an “energy power plan” to save energy this winter and the agreement of industry specialists Perifem, which is helping the industry solve technical problems related to the weather – has announced a series of measures that the maximum teams of supermarkets and hypermarkets will adopt from the 15th october.
In all supermarkets, the temperature will drop to 20°C, while lighting degrees will also be reduced, by 30% of opening hours and until part of the morning, before the points of sale open to the public. At night, the ventilation will be turned off, as well as all the luminous symptoms as soon as the supermarkets close. Ice production, especially for fishmongers, will move away from periods of maximum power.
Leclerc recently published a long article on LinkedIn describing the scenario in which he who before challenging citizens, the state and companies “must first be pioneers and exemplary. “
He said hypermarkets and supermarkets will have to devote themselves to reducing their energy consumption over the next few months and, if it becomes critical, take additional measures, up to reducing the opening hours of stores.
Calling the proposal “patriotic”, he warned that measures are being taken across Europe to be prepared for two or even 3 dubious winters and concluded: “We will not have to settle for the same mistakes of yesterday, in times of Covid. “when injunctions served politics too well: Before we lecture consumers or make someone feel guilty, our corporations will have to compromise.
He added that the company still needs to increase its energy consumption by 40% until 2040.
The other signatories to the declaration on forced cuts are food giants Auchan, Carrefour, Casino, Intermarché, Lidl, Picard and Système U, while Aldi and the Louis Delhaize organization are recently absent from the list.
While the French resolution is lately one-sided, EU member states have tried to buy fuel in the summer before the build-up in fuel demand in the winter, although considerations are developing that the continent might struggle to build up sufficient reserves. Last week, members followed a broader agreement on reducing energy consumption.
European fuel stocks are 62. 6% complete and it is feared that it will be difficult to meet the winter target of at least 80%.
Several countries, in addition to Poland, Bulgaria, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands, have noticed the suspension of their Russian fuel deliveries after rejecting a Russian request to pay in rubles, while Germany and Italy are vulnerable as they source most of their combustible materials from Russia.