Victim of rising prices, a Toulouse baker posts her obituary
With an electricity bill which will be multiplied by four in January, Christel Pegoraro, a baker in Toulouse, will no longer be able to cope.
“It was with a heavy heart that I raised the price of the wand. I realize that €1.10 is a lot for some people. But we can’t do it anymore. Artisan baker for twenty years, deposited in the Faubourg Bonnefoy, in Toulouse, opposite the Casino supermarket, for seven years, Christel Pegoraro, is on the edge of the abyss. And it is not sure that this last increase of 10 cents a fortnight ago, after a first last year, will be enough to cope.
The baker, who employs six people, feels condemned: she has been posted on her storefront and at the checkout a “death notice of the artisanal bakery-pastry shop”, killed by the vertiginous rise in the costs of raw materials and electricity .
During the Covid, his business was weakened. “I lost 40% of my turnover. And the State Guaranteed Loan (PGE) was used to replace the broken down oven. “It was already complicated to resurface” when, from 2021, the price of wheat rose. Followed by butter, sugar, eggs, milk… “There were four consecutive increases during the year. To avoid increasing the bread, the baker had hitherto played on the price of pastries and savory.
“I can’t pay”
A few days ago, by mail, his electricity supplier, Engie, announced to him for his contract which ends in December an increase in the kilowatt hour from €9,672 to €57,845. Either a monthly bill, which in January will drop from €2,200, at its peak in winter, to €8,000. Untenable for Christel who does not benefit from aid. “I can’t pay. »
And the survival of his business is at stake. “I am six months from repaying the loan I took out to open the bakery. I will never get to the end of these six months. Customers are amazed to discover this situation. But what is happening is serious, ”she says with emotion.