Meal vouchers... only at restaurants? "Tired of supermarkets becoming the center of social life"

A new development for meal vouchers. The 5 million employees who receive meal vouchers will be able to use them to shop in supermarkets from 2027, even on Sundays .

"The restaurant voucher allows employees to have their meals, and 6 out of 10 French people take their meals to work. We need to allow them to shop in stores to prepare this meal. And we need to keep it simple and allow them to use it on Sundays," explained Véronique Louwagie, the Minister Delegate for Trade , on RMC this Thursday.

This news does n't make restaurateurs happy : "It's incredible, the big retailers always win, and we, the small businesses, are always left behind," Stéphane, who runs a restaurant in Brest, laments to Les Grandes Gueules . "The government is doing this to calm public anger, to allow the French to go to restaurants on Sundays while we pay fees on meal vouchers," he says.

"It's those who work who suffer, it's unbearable," adds Stéphane.

"I'm fed up with supermarkets becoming the center of French life and social life," laments entrepreneur Flora Ghebali , regretting the establishment of cafes in supermarkets, which is killing small businesses.

"I prefer bistros, restaurants, where there is a real atmosphere, a real culture, rather than everything happening in a supermarket. We sell everything in supermarkets and the family outing on Sunday is at the supermarket. Why not, but it's a shame that we can't encourage people to go to restaurants," she continues on RMC Story .

"We must be able to use restaurant vouchers as much as possible, even on Sundays, but not in supermarkets," insists Flora Ghebali. "Yes for Sundays, no for supermarkets."

"The point is that we stop eating a pasta box that's unhealthy, when we could go to a bistro and eat something good," she sums up.

Five million French employees use meal vouchers to pay for meals and food shopping at some 244,000 retailers, with a daily limit of 25 euros.