Continuing to use restaurant vouchers in supermarkets in 2025 would be “a scandal” for Thierry Marx

The possible extension in 2025 of the use of meal vouchers for food shopping is “a scandal”estimated on RMC on Saturday Thierry Marx, president of Umih, the first employers’ organization of restaurateurs. Meal vouchers “were created for restaurants”their extension to mass distribution falls under the “scandal” and deprives restaurateurs of a windfall estimated at “576 million euros”assured restaurateur Thierry Marx on RMC Saturday morning.

The government recently announced that the extension of the use of meal vouchers to purchase non-directly consumable products in supermarkets (flour, pasta, rice, meat, etc.), in place since 2022 and popular with users, was going to be the subject of arbitration “in the coming days”.

On Friday, the other union in the sector, the Groupement des Hôtelleries & Restaurations de France (GHR), recognized that consumers saw “an advantage in terms of purchasing power”, but pleaded not to “continue to direct all meal vouchers towards mass distribution”according to restaurateur Romain Vidal, in charge of the file within the GHR. He recommended “a double daily payment ceiling: a ceiling of 15 euros in supermarkets and a ceiling of 25 euros in restaurants”.

Also readBertrand Dumazy (Edenred): “We do not know if Restaurant Tickets will still be able to be used to pay for groceries in 2025”

For creating a new title

For his part, Thierry Marx requests the creation of another title “sustainable food” intended for mass distribution. Edenred, the issuer of meal vouchers, had previously indicated that it was not “on principle” not in favor of perpetuating this extension. The meal voucher is a “social advantage, intended to eat well during the working day. It is therefore important that in the long term, it remains anchored in catering, so that companies continue to agree to finance it.believes the group.

The general delegate of the main employers’ organization in the mass distribution sector, the Fédération du Commerce et de la Distribution (FCD), Layla Rahhou, estimated on LinkedIn that “consumption habits are changing (preparing home-cooked meals for work, teleworking, etc.) for practical, social and economic reasons”which according to her was the response to the extension of meal vouchers.