Watching those lifestyle programmes on Channel Four, you get the impression that the French spend their day food shopping – wandering around the local market bulging with fresh produce, stopping off at the village boulangerie and the butchers wallowing in their superior food and way of life before returning home to spend the rest of the day preparing the evening meal.
It’s not like that.
Pontrieux has a butchers and a small grocery shop, you will be told that it is very good but a bit on the dear side. Sorry to spoil the illusion but most French people buy their groceries in supermarkets.
French supermarkets work on the principle that the customer is always wrong and NEVER EVER apologise for poor service. After living in France for a while you soon learn that people working for large retail organisations have unbelievable contempt for their customers.
There are two areas you need to look out for, product freshness and incorrect pricing.
You rarely see a ‘reduced section’ in a French supermarket. Instead of marking down the prices, the produce will often be left on the shelf, well past it’s sell by date. In England you would be thanked for pointing out that the cheese is a week past its sell by date (were you ever to encounter this), in France you are considered a nuisance and a bit odd.
You really need to check that the price on the shelf is what it charged at the till. Carrefour is particulary bad at this. It is irritating when it is only a few cents, more alarming when you get charged 150€ for a 90€ purchase. Any mistakes are never rectified at the till, you have to join the invariably long queue at the ‘service’ counter. A discussion will usually ensue where it is all your mistake. If you stand your ground, someone is reluctantly sent off to check. After a 10 – 15 min wait and set of phone calls you get your money back, but no apology.
Seeing special offers in a supermarket, my brother now takes the promo material to the till in the virtual certainty that the incorrect price will be charged.
A new twist on poor service occured today at the local Intermarché when the checkout assistant was unable to differentiate between a cucumber and a courgette. A simple error, however one wouldn’t expect that it would involve a 10 minute wait for a supervisor to appear and that all the shopping that I had packed, to be emptied out and rescanned. There was no apology.
British people love to moan about Tesco. You don’t realise how lucky you are.