Is price dispersion a concern for French consumers?

Deviations from ‘optimal prices’ may imply that monetary policy is not efficiently transmitted to inflation, hindering central banks’ objective of price stability. But is price dispersion also a concern for consumers? This Rue de la Banque describes price dispersion across stores in France and then focuses on the perspective of consumers. Indeed, price deviations from ‘normal’ prices are persistent over time in France and expensive and cheap stores tend to be consistently so across the products they sell. Luckily for French consumers, assessing the relative expensiveness of stores appears rather easy.