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The French word for impasse is—you’ll never guess—impasse, the explanation being that the word originated in France. This etymological detour comes courtesy of French supermarket chain Carrefour and the American food and beverage conglomerate, PepsiCo, which recently ended a three-month impasse/impasse over pricing that resulted in all PepsiCo products—including its cola as well as the Doritos, Cheetos, and Lay’s brands—disappearing from the stores’ shelves.
When Carrefour gave the products la botte in January, it explained (in French) with shelf signage that read, “We are no longer selling this brand due to unacceptable price increases.”
But at the time, PepsiCo argued that it wasn’t Carrefour that rejected it, but the other way around.
“Regrettably, Carrefour has mischaracterized the chain of events,” an unnamed PepsiCo spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal at the time. “Given the lack of agreement on a new contract, we stopped supplying to Carrefour at the end of the year, something they were aware could happen.”
But that’s all resolved now, and like Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke reuniting for another sequel, the France-US romance has been rekindled.
The French reconnection: On April 3, Alexandre de Palmas, executive director of Carrefour France, posted a photo on X in which he held a Pepsi in one of his store’s aisles and wrote, according to a translation from French on Google Translate, “It’s nice to see friends we haven’t seen for a long time.”
This was not the first act of résistance on Carrefour’s part in recent memory when it comes to challenging prices.
In 2023, as Retail Brew reported at the time, in response to shrinkflation—the practice of brands making products smaller rather than raising prices—Carrefour also named and shamed with shelf signage.
“This product has seen its weight drop and the price charged by our supplier increase,” the signs read (as translated from the French by The Grocer). “We are committed to renegotiating this price.”
Among the products called out by the signs were some made by PepsiCo.