"We need to raise wages, to make work pay more, so that our children can buy an apartment with their salaries," says Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of E. Leclerc centres.

While the debates around purchasing power and rising salaries continue, Michel-Édouard Leclerc, president of the strategic committee of the E. Leclerc centers, was the guest of Francis Letellier on France 2, Tuesday November 11. He returned to the openings of stores on Sundays and public holidays, the need to increase wages, his proposal to reduce social security contributions, the evolution of fuel sales and the cyberattacks targeting the connected refrigerators of several supermarkets, attributed to Iran.

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the interview above. Click on the video to watch it in full. Francis Letellier: Today, November 11, many stores are open, including Leclerc centers.

Are you in favor of generalizing store openings on public holidays and Sundays? Michel-Édouard Leclerc: No. We don't have that many stores open on Sunday.

It is often on Sunday morning, to accompany a commercial area and prevent it from being completely empty. But we have never been an activist for opening stores every Sunday. Or public holidays?

Nor on public holidays. However, some stores are open today. Yes, it depends on the areas.

There are places where it is necessary to have commercial locomotives, and Leclerc can be a very important one. Furthermore, when we hold too large a market share, it is also an opportunity, in discussions with municipalities, to let other traders breathe, particularly when Leclerc represents a very large part of the customer base. We are going to talk about purchasing power and the question of salaries, which are at the heart of the debates currently.

In your opinion, should salaries be increased? Yes. Wages must be increased, work must pay more.

Our children must be able to buy an apartment or a car with their salary. However, today, this is becoming more and more difficult. If I compare it with my own journey a few years ago, I see that it has really become complicated.

But how to increase salaries? Should we give a boost to the minimum wage or carry out a general increase in salaries? My solution consists of reducing salaries, by removing the social contributions which are added to the salary.

When we announce a minimum wage of 1,500 euros, it actually costs the company 2,000 or 2,500 euros. I am therefore in favor of abolishing social security contributions. For employees or for businesses?

Machine-translated from French