La Grande Epicerie de Paris remains open and supports stakeholders during the Covid-19 crisis
Selective retailing
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© Boris Allin
La Grande Epicerie de Paris, as an essential food business, has kept its stores open since the beginning of the lockdown. By providing customers with products they need, the stores are at the same time enabling their suppliers to protect their businesses. La Grande Epicerie has also taken a series of initiatives to help vulnerable segments of the population.
As a grocery store, La Grande Epicerie de Paris has remained open without interruption since the beginning of the lockdown in France, thanks largely to the engagement and professionalism of the store’s employees.
Staff are on the front lines to maintain the activities of La Grande Epicerie and provide customers with food products. Employees are mobilized from checkout counters to the bakery and pastry shop, from the cheese counter to the aisles throughout the store. The LVMH Group salutes their indispensable engagement.
To enable the store to safely remain open, comprehensive protective measures have been reinforced to ensure the safety of employees. They include maintaining safe distances between employees and between employees and customers, provision of gloves, masks and hand sanitizer and plexiglass barriers for checkout staff. La Grande Epicerie has also encouraged its staff to use alternatives to public transportation such as taxis or bicycles, and reimburses their costs. What’s more staff receive a bonus for working during the lockdown to thank them for their engagement.
Because La Grande Epicerie de Paris has remained open, it has also been able to continue placing orders with suppliers, who are often small producers. This enables the brand to support its partners during this particularly difficult period for them. La Grande Epicerie has taken this commitment further by making sure that no suppliers are left behind.
Producers of salt marsh lamb, for example, received an increase in orders ahead of Easter to help compensate for their losses, as did farmers who raise prized Mieral poultry and Noire de Bigorre pig. Supplier invoices have been paid more rapidly too to help them weather the crisis.
This support for La Grande Epicerie’s independent suppliers extends to La Grande Epicerie own-brand products as well. Working in partnership with small artisanal French producers – such as Biscuiterie-Chocolaterie Mercier, Etablissements George Cannon, Kerex, J. Barthouil, Le Comptoir de Mathilde, Groix et Nature, Sacré Willy, Cooperative Sauniers Ile De Ré, Aix&Terra and Berry Graines – the store aims to offer a large selection of quality products for everyday enjoyment. Thanks to a fair-pricing policy, La Grande Epicerie promotes local savoir-faire and quality production techniques in different French terroirs. This commitment has been reaffirmed during the Covid-19 crisis by maintaining orders and providing support for all producers.
La Grande Epicerie would be unable to continue operating during this period without the contributions of its partners. Gamba & Rota and Star Service have respectively overseen inventory management and contact-free home deliveries to enable the store to pursue its activities.
At the same time, La Grande Epicerie de Paris is helping support exposed and vulnerable segments of the population. Over 3,000 Easter chocolates were donated to Paris hospital healthcare personnel and fresh products with short shelf lives are delivered daily to Cochin hospital in Paris with help from Coursier Privé and RedE electric scooters. Protective gowns have been sent to local nurse practitioners in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, while partnerships with the French Red Cross and the Too Good To Go application have been expanded during the crisis to help those in need and limit food waste.