Where do people in France grocery shop?

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Cabal

As said above, we mostly shop in super and hypermarkets (there's more of them in France per inhabitant than anywhere in the world). Then we shop in Superette (small city supermarket shops) and for stuff like bread we go to regular shops. You still find butcher shops too, other food shops are usually specialised with very good and expensive products. The open markets are for fresh products, like fruit or vegetable, and are not enough to face the demand of a whole city, especially when most people are at work during the day and cannot go to those markets. It is mostly women who do not work and retired people who go there during the week.
Shopping pattern is usually Saturday for the big stuff and top it off by buying if needed or for fresh products during the week.

elliott

Most French people shop in hypermarkets. The main one's in my area being Auchan, Carrefour, Cora and E'Leclerc.
There is a large market every week in the town in which I live, which is well attended but the prices can not compare with the large hypermarkets.

Jerry 71

Elliot est correcte! Most of the ppl shop in the chain supermarkets he mentioned. The stereotype is of ppl going to markets (e.g. open air markets), but most working ppl are very busy and do one stop shopping in supermarkets. On Sundays, many ppl still go to open air markets to buy fresh fruits and veggies. It is still possible to go to individual shops to buy particular items (patisserie for pastries, boulangerie for bread, charcuterie for fresh meats/sausage, etc.). There are also mom and pop stores that sell packaged foods and believe it or not, the prices can be double or even triple that of the supermarkets. There are even supermarkets that sell only frozen foods. Another observation: the open air vendors frequently do not want customers to handle the produce. OTOH, in supermarkets, it is often self service with the custormer weighing the produce, entering the product code and obtaining a sticker (with the name of the produce and price) to stick on the plastic bag of produce. Another observation: French ppl tend to eat much less breakfast cereal than American/Canadians/UK ppl. There are the old stand-bys: Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes and French ppl also enjoy muesli type cereals.

Kelley S

Both - It greatly depends on what regions of France.

corniste_sjn

Where I lived, in le Nord, we shopped at Ocean (kinda like Meijer or a super Walmart- although walmart sucks). They did have markets every once in a while, but no one I know lived off the market... I don't think I've ever been to a market that would have everything you need.

j_k_mccracken

throughout the week, its most likely to be ordinary shops, and then over the weekend, markets for fresh fruit and veg :)

jvoulais

A lot of French people still rely on the open air markets to pick up fresh produce. For baked goods, one will always go to the boulangerie, for cheeses and wines, usually there are individual shops that sell items specific to what they need. So a Frenchman would actually never need to step food into a hypermarket, but still the younger generations do. Carrefour, Auchan, Champion, Casino, and E.Leclerc are most common and widely shopped at supermarkets in France. If one does not shop at a local market or small specialized shop, then that person would most likely be shopping at a hypermarket.

Leah J

they have lagre supermarkets but there new in france
most people will go to markets for fruits and veggies and a bakery for bread and desserts and a botcher for meats

sportyfreak2run

did you know that people on yahoo answers mainly consists of americans? why would you ask that on this.

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