Orangeinblack Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 My daughter has an assignment in her grade 8 french and is looking for some answers on this subject. Why French people still shop in small stores? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunflower Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Basic answer is that they don't any more than the British.Perhaps you can get her to convey that to her teacher.I would suggest that you don't do the homework for her . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 I agree with Sunflower - French people here seem to be completely converted to supermaket shopping, and huge DIY sheds such as Bricomarche.Very few small stores left, and they're rapidly going out of business.Possible exceptions - small bakery businesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 [quote user="Orangeinblack"]My daughter has an assignment in her grade 8 french and is looking for some answers on this subject. Why French people still shop in small stores? Thanks. [/quote]What kind of 'small stores' are you asking about? If you are talking about small independent shops in town centres then possibly because you can see so many more than say in the U.K. Especially in lots of the French towns. From the expression 'small stores' can I assume that you are one of our trans Atlantic cousins??[blink][blink]If you are talking about the supermarket shopping centres then they are getting bigger by the day and that's because they are getting more popular. Le grande surface is incredibly popular and the one near to us was growing and is now exploding BIG time!The main thing that they are missing is how to get people in and out of the bleedin awful mess they are creating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 I do hope that this is not another person labouring under the misconception that this forum's contributors are a bunch of French people who get together to have discussions in English, because it's beyond surprising how often people DO seem to think that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 If I were given such a question bête which also needs the word "do" and a question mark to be worthy of an answer, I would reply "for the same reasons that they have always shopped there". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I'm not French, but I still shop in smaller specialist shops for the quality.I would include market stalls in this.I buy eggs, milk, cheese, bread, fruit and veg, meat and fish from separate traders, all of them seeling local seasonal produce.For clothes I use town centre chain shops such as Armant Thierry.I use supermarkets for household and cleaning items. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I reckon Oranginblack is the CFO for Amazon.Orangeinblack....it is the same reason that ebay fr is a complete waste of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patf Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 [quote user="alittlebitfrench"].it is the same reason that ebay fr is a complete waste of time.[/quote]Once again, albf, I disagree with you. I've bought many things from ebay.fr, no problems with any of them.Perhaps not the range offered on ebay. uk but good responses and reliable delivery.ps are you sure you can speak/read french? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 Patf, I'd go one step further: are you sure you can speak/read English with any competence?[6] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 [quote user="Patf"][quote user="alittlebitfrench"].it is the same reason that ebay fr is a complete waste of time.[/quote]Once again, albf, I disagree with you. I've bought many things from ebay.fr, no problems with any of them.Perhaps not the range offered on ebay. uk but good responses and reliable delivery.ps are you sure you can speak/read french?[/quote]I meant that the French when it comes to shopping are very stuck in their own ways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I find that a lot of British immigrants are also stuck in the ways they have been conned into by UK supermarkets, and find it difficult to adjust and benefit from the local seasonal produce rather than buying something from far away, out of season pre-packed and tasteless made to stay as long as possible on the shelves looking good and becoming ever more lacking in flavour or nutrients. A very nice English lady who runs a sort of tea shop not far from me was bewildered that the man who has been supplying her with goat's cheese over the summer has stopped coming to the market. I had to explain that his goats have come to the end of lactation for this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 [quote user="NormanH"]I find that a lot of British immigrants are also stuck in the ways they have been conned into by UK supermarkets, . [/quote]And paint producers LOLWhenever I go to the UK I come back with just tartare sauce and some clothes from ASDA. Other than that the car is empty.Everyday I go on the A10 into town and I see overladen Brit reg cars heading SW with loads of crap that they can buy here if they can google in french. Muppets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 ?? In France, I only buy fruit and veg from Lidl. Other than that, my neighbour subs me with veg from her potager. If I want to go to the market, THEN I can find seasonal stuff, but given that I object to paying through the nose for it, I'm not going to be conned into buying a €2 lettuce and having to chuck half of it away just so I can wax lyrical about how lovely it is to buy market produce. Round my way, it's even cheaper to buy Charentais melons from Lidl, unless you happen to really want eight of them at a time, in which case there's someone down the road who sells them. However, if I'm in France on my own, I like to vary my diet and not be stuck eating melon for every meal. It's the same story with most fruits, which are readily available near me direct from the grower, but unless you're in the habit of consuming your own body weight in fruit every day, the quantities you have to buy from them would defeat you. As for Maurisette and her mutant veg stall on the village square, no thanks, I'll pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 Hmmm..............Lidl !!!!!!!!!!!The next fad after gluten free will be Lidl free.I have to admit that after the initial excitement of Lidl we are happy to say/admit we are Lidl free.Poison with a capitale P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 €2 for a lettuce?! I should think not! 90 cents from the market, bio or non-bio, whichever you prefer. I buy fruits and veg in season from very local growers, don't have to buy large quantities, again, mostly bio or not depending on our favourite stalls. We have 2 markets each week plus another in a village a little way along the road on a third day. Spoilt for choice, really.We have many bakeries and cake shops in town, with our favourites for whichever bread we need at the time and our favourite cake shop. In fact, the things we buy at the supermarkets are toilet rolls, tissues etc, stuff like that.Wine comes from whichever local grower we fancy buying it, some bio, very good at around €18 for 5 litres, or bottles from other local growers at about €5 a bottle. We also have a wine shop selling bottles from growers all over the Gard at the price you would pay from the grower, or bottles of wines from cheap and cheerful to hugely expensive. Lots of tastings there too, as well as at the growers' domaines.I think we're very lucky with the amount of choice we have.In England I buy from Waitrose or M&S, wouldn't dream of buying the rubbish in the nearest town market, really poor. If I want to buy from a grower, it's quite a drive.I know which I enjoy shopping at the most, and thoroughly enjoy chatting to tge stallholders, even though staff and products at Waitrose & M&S are very good. I thought recently that buying in our local markets in France isn't that much different to when I was sent by my mother to buy cheese, butter and sugar at the local shops in the 50s in England; lots of chat, asking after family etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I consistently end up throwing away more fresh produce in France than I ever have in the UK. Considering that on the whole I buy the same stuff, I find it hard to account for this, other than that the stuff in the UK is under ripe and the stuff in France is over ripe.GG in my neck of the woods, markets DO charge you €2 for a bog standard lettuce. And that's in Saintes, where people come from Royan to shop because the market there is even more expensive.?Lidl, OTOH, has local fruit and veg at sensible prices that aren't pourri by the time I've driven home. Haven't they won the "best supermarket chain in France"" award for the last 2 years? ALBF, "proudly Lidl free" to me means "more money than sense"And the Waitrose thing..I was queueing at a UK Lidl ages ago and the woman in front of me answered her mobile with the immortal line "Can I call you back, I'm just in Waitrose" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 I really like that Waitrose answer on her mobile!YCCMB, you really must be in an expensive area! But people say our town is expensive and go to Nimes for their shopping! I've not shopped in Lidl, but I have been to Aldi not that far from our house in England, which I wasn't that impressed by. I believe Lidl have won awards, maybe I'll see where the nearest is. I'm told their wines are good, but the ads I've seen have been far more than we would generally pay for wine, apart from special occasions.I was shocked at the price of a cup of coffee over the weekend - we usually pay €1.40, but we were charged €2 in a nearby village. Our café serves a biscuit with coffee too, unlike the €2 place. The staff are lovely too and sometimes they are as good as street theatre - for free! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 19, 2015 Share Posted October 19, 2015 There are probably significant differences between regions, but the one thing I would never buy in the Lidl in Béziers is fruit and veg.Peaches that are tiny hard green and unripe, dry oranges, unripe bananas...If I buy those from the man in les Halles he asks me which day I plan to eat the produce and will provide accordingly.For me there are two extremes. One is the pleasure and quality of produce and service that comes from a local supplier, combined with the social aspect of chat, banter and having a coffee with the other people around. The other is the sort of shopping I can do on the Internet where I know how many rolls of toilet paper I need or which brand of detergent I use. That is more efficiently done on-line and delivered.To me the drudgery of toiling round a stressful crowded hell is neither pleasurable nor efficient, so I reckon that Supermarkets fall between those two stools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Lordy, I was buying nectarines, peaches and melons in Lidl all summer. Huge, delicious, ripe and juicy. Just goes to show the effect of the local purchasing element. Sure, nobody asked me what day I wanted to eat them, but I wouldn't have been able to answer them if they had. Who goes shopping for fruit and buys a piece for each day...and how can you recognise Monday's peach from Wednesday's peach in the bag when you get home? ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Well I buy fruit fresh so it doesn't sit around for long, as I shop several times a week as it is a pleasure as long as it is a personal service, but in any case if I buy three peaches say he puts the least ripe at the bottom of the bag and brings it over to put it in the basket on my scooter.If Lidl claim to buy locally they must have a strange definition of local. Nowhere near here grows fruit that unripe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 [quote user="You can call me Betty"]Lordy, I was buying nectarines, peaches and melons in Lidl all summer. Just goes to show the effect of the local purchasing element. [/quote]Whilst I was waiting to speak to the manager of our Lidl, who was on the phone, I could not help but overhear part of her side of the conversation. She was speaking quite emphatically and saying that no, no she did not want *** again as it was rubbish; she wanted xxx as that was consistently good. She turned to me and said that she needed to insist at times to get the best.Perhaps this is why our Lidl has gone from strength to strength since being opened in 2006. She has been there since the start and overseen all 3 extensions.Fingers crossed we don't lose her as she has built an excellent team around her; all in all it is a real pleasure to shop there.On the other hand there is a Lidl 20 kms away that really is not in the same league at all; perhaps they could do with a different manager.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Lidl Steak Hache...The packaging will tell you the fat content. In carrefour it can be between 5%-15%.In lidl it is 45%.........Yes 45% FAT ! Enjoy lidl prices while you can before you keel over and die of a heart attack.P.S. If you are a Steak Hache on this forum reading this please do not think I am picking on you as an individual Steak Hache. I am generalising. I would never pick a fight with a Steak Hache. I got banned today from somewhere I did not join. LOL. I am feeling very insecure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Tosh.I cook off pretty much all the fat in a halogen cooker and am maniaque enough to weigh foodstuffs before and after cooking so I knew that the above wasnt true, nonetheless I looked at the packet I brought with me to YUK and they are indeed 15% MG and if I am Lucky 100% horse [;-)] http://www.lidl.fr/fr/moins-cher.htm?action=showDetail&id=33841 Fat is an essential element of a balanced diet, maybe not 45% unless you are an Eskimo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted October 20, 2015 Share Posted October 20, 2015 Not Tosh.I bought two steak Hache from Lidl that were 45 % Matiere Grasse. If I had a twitter account or a facebook page I would have taken a picture and sent it viral.Their sausages spill a lot of fat too when you cook them.Yuk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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