Filling your cupboards and refrigerator with restaurant vouchers will soon no longer be possible. From Wednesday January 1, 2025, you will no longer be able to buy all the food products of your choice, as has been the case since 2022, but only those immediately consumable. Example: sandwiches, prepared meals or even mixed salads. This change in the use of meal vouchers is a consequence of the fall of the government of Michel Barnier : the exemption which allows these titles to be used for all foods cannot be renewed in time because the legislative work has been suspended.
“It’s a shame”, Lucia whispers. This childminder pushes a cart loaded with shopping in a supermarket parking lot on the outskirts of Saint-Étienne. “It’s going to make a hole in the budget. It’s money that we can’t put elsewhere.” Every month, Lucia uses the 180 euros of restaurant vouchers from her husband who works in construction for shopping and not to eat in restaurants, “because financially, it’s simply not possible.”
Like her, Axel uses the fifty euros in restaurant vouchers that his father gives him to go shopping. “It’s mainly for everyday products like pasta, rice, flour, it allows me to get through the months”. This medical student will no longer be able to purchase these products with their titles, “I will work in addition to my studies on the side”.
Lucie Amadieu
“Very good news for restaurateurs”, according to UMIH 42
For his part, Fabrice Laurençon, president of the Union of Hotel Trades and Industries in the Loire, is delighted: “this is very good news”. This restaurateur, at the head of L’intuition in Montrond-les-Bains, calls for individual responsibility. “People who don’t have the means to go to a restaurant, yes, they take restaurant vouchers for rice, pasta, oil, vinegar, that’s good. But we must not it’s everyone. Initially it’s a restaurant ticket, that’s what it means if you go to the supermarkets. it is no longer a restaurant ticket, but a cart voucher.”
Fabrice Laurençon believes that there are solutions. “There are fast food or restaurants with a well-adapted formula”. The president of UMIH 42 also hopes that the stores will play the game but nothing is less certain recognizes Elisa*, at the head of a Casino mini-market in Saint-Étienne. “The cash registers are configured by IT specialists so we are waiting to see on January 1st whether it will change anything or not at the IT level.”
Some consumers like Nicolas, project manager in the industry, do not want to take the risk of seeing if the computer system is properly updated or not: they stock up with his wife. “We go to the supermarket every day. We don’t buy much but we spend the authorized 25 euros whether it’s for meat, pasta, rice, frozen foods, cheese.” He is even considering a radical solution: asking his employer to stop providing him with the 250 euros in restaurant vouchers to which he is entitled each month to avoid having difficult-to-spend vouchers.
*The first name has been changed
