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PARIS, France — Hundreds of people besieged supermarkets in and around Paris on Thursday, with scuffles and shouting matches breaking out as residents scrambled to get their hands on bargain air-cooling units before the next heatwave hits the French capital. With few air conditioners on sale elsewhere for less than 1,200 euros ($1,400), police were called to at least two stores as huge crowds descended on Lidl supermarkets trying to get their hands on basic models on sale for as low as 179 euros.
Mousa Traore, who had been waiting for more than an hour along with some 200 other customers at a small Lidl store, said he had been told there were only two units on sale.
"But then the police came and we were told there were none. The police officers took them I think," he said laughing. Lasana, a man who did not give his second name, told AFP he had secured one of the two air conditioners after queueing for seven hours from 04:00 in a northern Paris neighbourhood where badly insulated high-rise buildings bake in the summer heat.
Weather services are forecasting another round of hot weather this weekend, after record high temperatures in late June that led to excess deaths, overwhelmed hospitals and closed schools.
'Misleading advertising'
Fatou, a 69-year-old grandmother, was less fortunate. She waited six hours in line where she performed her morning prayers, before leaving with only a fan, despite being third in line.
Few homes and schools in France have air conditioning. A recent study estimated that one in two homes is "inadequately equipped" to cope with high temperatures, turning into a "thermal cauldron" during increasingly frequent heatwaves that scientists say are linked to human-induced climate change.
Many outside the store in the capital's 19th district were furious at the way they were treated.
Fatou and several others accused Lidl of "misleading advertising" knowing so many people desperately need the units.
The crowd at the store was mostly good-humoured, but some disputes broke out as people tried to jump the queue.
"I am not opening the store unless you leave," a manager shouted, as customers harangued her, with another member of staff telling AFP only two air conditioners had been delivered.
He refused to say if they had already been sold.
'It's madness'
Hundreds more descended on a supermarket in Sevran, with cars queueing for the store blocking the centre of the poor northern suburb.
It was much the same story in the nearby suburb of Livry-Gargan. "I give up, it's madness," one local called Lolo told AFP. "I abandoned my car several streets away to get there on foot but there is already a huge queue of people in the car park. It's impossible."
The rush for cooling units comes despite longstanding scepticism towards air conditioning in France, with eight in 10 people viewing it as environmentally unfriendly, according to one survey.
But attitudes appear to be shifting as temperatures climb, with cooling units flying off shelves.
In the midst of the heatwave on June 22, hypermarket operator Carrefour had sold 30,000 units by 6:30 pm -- "a thousand times more than on a normal day", CEO Alexandre Bompard said.
The share of French households equipped with air conditioning rose from 18 per cent in 2023 to 24 per cent in 2025, according to the state environment agency Ademe.
