Shopping in France
The roots of the word "shopping" go back to the old French eschoppe, which in modern French is echoppe, a lean-to booth or cobbler's stall. Yet the French contributions to modern shopping go beyond the word. The concept of luxury goods is a French invention, as is the word "luxury", from the old French luxurie, and today the world's leading luxury goods conglomerate is LVMH of Paris. Likewise, the word "hypermarket" is the Anglicisation of hypermarche, a word coined in 1968 to describe a huge supermarket that sells a great variety of goods in addition to food, and today a French food and non-food retailer, Carrefour, is second largest in the world.
As elsewhere, supermarkets and hypermarkets loom large in the food sector, together each year accounting for 87% of the total turnover in foods and related items. Yet across the country, small food shops outnumber supermarkets and hypermarkets. Including tobacconists, they outnumber the super and hypermarkets 12 to one. Though the big shops account for the lion's share of sales each year, the small shops still reflect the shopping habits of France, so much so that hypermarkets will have departments named after the sorts of small shops that they supplant - boucherie, boulangerie, charcuterie, chocolaterie, fromagerie, poissonnerie, traiteur and so on.
In non-foods the picture is more mixed. There are large department stores and supermarket-sized DIY shops, but small and medium-sized shops prevail, many in chains but nonetheless independent. In all, there are nearly a third of a million of them across the country.
Department Stores
The department store is a French invention. The first opened in 1852 in Paris, when Aristide (1810-1877) and Marguerite (1816-1887) Boucicaut founded Le Bon Marche, a drapery and dry-goods shop. In 1869, the shop was the first to display goods with price tags, and in 1871 it was the first to publish a mail order catalogue.
Today it is among the leading department stores that include:
- BHV, the abbreviation for Bazar de 1'Hotel de Ville, founded in 1855 and now with 9 stores in the Paris area and 6 elsewhere in the country; main store at 55 rue de la Verrerie, 75004 Paris, Tel: 01 42749000, www.bhv.fr with an interactive store locator map.
- Le Bon Marche, the descendant of the first shop, 24 rue Sevres, 75007 Paris, Tel: 01 44398050, www.lebonmarche.fr selectable in French or English.
- Galleries Lafayette, now the country's largest department store chain, with 422 stores and 56 affiliates, main store at 40 Boulevard Haussmann, 75009 Paris, Tel: 01 42823456, www.gallerieslafayette.com in French, English and nine other languages and with an interactive shop locator map.
- PRP, the abbreviation for Pinaut-Printemps-Redoute, specialising in luxury goods, 10 avenue Hoche, 75381 Paris Cedex 08, Tel: 01 45646100, www.ppr.com in French and English.
- Samaritaine, founded in 1869 and now the largest shop in Paris, at 17-19 rue de la Monnaie, 75001 Paris, Tel: 08 00010015, www.lasamaritaine.com.
