Post by Patrick Three on Nov 20, 2006 17:31:44 GMT
madrigalman said:
admin said:
I think there will always be a place for shops because browsing is less efficient on the internet - you can't touch and smell (yet).Well according to Todays Times you could well be right (in France at least, I can't see it happening in this hole
).....Although Mr Chirac has performed many about-turns during a tortuous career, he has been steadfast in his determination to halt the decline of village stores and urban corner shops, announcing tax cuts yesterday for “micro-businesses”. His campaign may at last be paying off, thanks largely to the immigrant families who are now the guardians of this particular aspect of Frenchness.
After falling from 125,000 to 28,500 between 1970 and 2000, the number of grocers in France has stabilised and appears to be rising again as Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian families invest in what Mr Fatih describes as a “business with a future”.
Mr Fatih hopes that his store in Courbevoie, south of Paris — called Épicerie Faty because he says the name sounds more French and “not like an Arab corner shop” with a ‘y’ — will be the first of many. “I have three children and I want to buy shops for them when they are older,” he said. “Who knows where it could lead? After all, McDonald’s started this way.”
In an illustration of Mr Fatih’s optimism, the first trade fair for French grocers opened this week at the Paris Exhibition Centre. Called Épiciers Expo and organised by Metro France, the country’s leading wholesaler, it featured four model stores.
There was the rural shop, with chocolates and crisps by the entrance and washing powder and wine inside; the urban shop, with mustard, biscuits and beer; the late-night store, where the shelves are narrow and high to reduce the risk of theft; and the up-market grocer, which stocks champagne and bottled sorrel.
Despite the computerised cash-tills, which were also on display, the models were designed to convey the old-fashioned image highlighted by l’épicerie in the film Amélie.
Like Mr Chirac, customers are attached to traditional stores, according to Pascal Gayrard, the managing director of Metro France. These are viewed as a mark of the bustling inner cities and living rural communities that set France apart from Anglo- Saxon culture. But a glance at the visitors to the exhibition showed how such shops depend upon North African immigrants for their survival
From what I read elsewhere, France still has some nice tidy bits of legislation that protect their small shops? I don't know how it goes currently, but it wasn't long ago that the Pharmacie was just that - and no more - and the Supermarche wasn't allowed to sell an Aspirin! - Oh if we only had it here!
