Essential British Goods

[You fly oui drive]

I would be interested in that idea of bringing essential goods for ex-pats across to France so if anybody else would like this service please e-mail me

[Val_2]

What sort of goods? If you mean Baked Beans and the like, the larger supermarkets sell them anyway and most have a fair few "english" items all at inflated prices but people do buy and then there are the Comptoire Irelandais franchises which sell many items too and are in every town. Many people have toyed with this idea but the logistics and costs involved are prohibitive and under french regs,everything edible or medical or cosmetic MUST be labelled in french which incurrs further problems with the authorities here. Sorry but speaking as someone who has lived here a very long time and learned to adapt to all things french you may not be aware of this and waste your money trying to set it up. With the fuel about to go up in price again you would also have to pass this on to your customers who I doubt would want to pay and this according to my haulage company boss BIL is what is already happening in the UK anyway.

[Dick Smith]

I think the answers here will be the same as you got elsewhere! NW France is also a place where there are many second-homers who can bring out what they need, and those who go back to the UK regularly. There was a shop in Sourdeval (Manche) selling UK sourced stuff, but it went broke, I think. Probably because the supermarkets were selling the stuff cheaper. In some of the big places they now have English-speaking checkouts.

As far as labelling, Val, our local supermarket sells Heinz beans (go lovely with the hachis parmentier from the charcuterie) and they have a small printed label stuck on with the nutritional info in French. It could be done on a home computer I would think. They guy at the fish 'n chip van doesn't bother with labels on the stuff he sells, including sell-by dates...

[IAN_S]

There have been, or still are, web sites offering British goods and at first glance the prices were ok, BUT when you add carriage the whole thing is a waste of time.

Most Brits here in the south very quickly get used to buying French products even if they are not quite the same, eg beans in very thin tomato sauce, we just add what we want to make them a bit more tastier.

Our nearest SuperU now has a British "shelf" but it doesn't have the one thing my wife would kill for, Marmite! I now offer to do little jobs for maison secondaire owners so long as they bring out the goodies.

 

[opas]

We too live off the shelves of the Fench supermarket (and vary our cuisine very well,last night being Roast Rabbit and Dauphenoise potatoes and tonights is Couscous with beef and home grown(across the street) courgette and Aubergines,) who now do have a small range of English products at very high prices. Now if like us you spread your `wealth` and frequent various stores one can overcome the urge for `english marmalade` , Heinze picalilly or Branston to go with your Auchan home brand corned beef or when the kids spot it , treat `em to a crunchie bar.

As for the rest, we also get cheeky and ask the odd second home owner for a box of Shreadies or own brand gravy granuals or crumpets on their next trip.....oh and Tracey beaker mags for the girls.

The odd trip into Spain, about 1/2 hour away will also supply the desperate with a spong pud or a tin of mushy peas......but I am avidly waiting for the day they import the Hollands range, steak and kidney pud geing first on the list!

Mrs O

[Teamedup]

Come on now tell us Mrs O, is Auchan corned beef really like real corned beef, or is it like something that you would think twice about giving the cat........... which has been the case with everylast tin of the stuff I have bought since I have been here.

We are rather partial to corned beef pasties from time to time in winter and I have always brought it back from Holland or the UK.

[annie1]

I am generalising, but most of us living in the North West of France have no difficulty in getting British groceries due to our close proximity to the various ferries and the tunnel.   Although we are finding excellent French substitutes for most of our "can't live withouts".

 

regards 

[opas]

TU, just looked in the fridge at a can of corned beef(easier to cut when chilled) it is Kondor corned beef,not Auchan own as I said befor, our Auchan has recently aquired a new section with `budget` brands(which I have to say ,a lot of it is rubbish and contains all sorts of undesirable additives) but this cornedbeef is enjoyable and less than a euro for340 grams.

I like corned beef hash, hadn`t thought to do a pasty with it.......theres another meal sorted.

I have to agree with you on their own brand stuff, the pasta takes forever to cook and various other items we have bought were pretty foul.

[You fly oui drive]

May I ADD I hadnt intended to bring over produce or other food stuffs what I was thinking of was more the DIY or catalogued items which maybe are not available in France.Most companies have web sites,this could be ordered by the customer and then delivered to my address for myself to then transport it to your home in France.

[Dick Smith]

If it isn't available in France that may well be because there is not enough demand for it. So you need to find out if there is a sufficient niche market to make money for you.

I can't really see that the charge you could make for delivery would give you a living.

It's also getting a bit tiresome that the same post keeps turning up in different sections - get a business plan pack from your bank and go through it carefully, bearing in mind French tax rates and social charges, then do some proper market research (not just the one forum - you may need to spend some time and money on that) and see if the figures add up. In the end it is down to your judgement on whether or not the risk is acceptable.