Nice one Steve, wholeheartedly agree. If one lives in a country, work there, shop there, pay your taxes etc etc, then you should be free to praise the country or be critical of it's downsides, which ever is the case.
The argument should even have merits if one was as a holiday maker or second home owner.
The last time I looked France like the UK was a free country and we are free to moan as much as we like so Damien if you don’t like reading all the moans on here then a bit of your own medicine …DO ONE turn off SFN and go find a French non moaning forum…
Indeedy.
Indeed - like all good dinner party conversations!
I think we digress.
That is supermarket discounting the world over, the supplier has to go along with what is being promoted. They have a choice sell x cases of product at standard shelf or 5x at discounted price. Basic supply and demand.
I presume magazines are the same as the UK, shop selling magazine makes 25% profit on each one sold, wholesaler makes his 25% profit, then distributor makes his 25% and finally the publisher makes his 25%. then the poor printer makes his 25% profit on what is left.
One of my students ( a food supplier) tells me that Leclerc are far worse than Carrefour in terms of squeezing every last penny or centime from the producers. I didn't know for example, that when you get the Leclerc brochure advertising the 30% off in "Tickets Leclerc", that it is the producer who bears the 30% shortfall not the supermarket. And unless the supplier agrees to the discount, he is told that his products won't be promoted.
There's one woman in particular on the checkout at our local dreaded carrefour who drives me mad and i avoid if it's at all possible as she never puts the belt on to move the shopping down, after many times stretching to reach the stuff she's scanned and discarded right next to her i now just stand there looking at her until she moves it, once it's all piled up and she can't scan anymore eventually she gets the hint. 1-0 to me, tiny victories and all that. The other staff are actually quite pleasant. The story about the refund and then re-shopping because of the loyalty card made me laugh to Tracy.
Your right about the "bonjour" in the shop, etc., Tracy, but, on the other side of the coin, how about French drivers acknowledging another driver when allowed to pass in a tight bit of road? They, in general, just drive past without as much as a nod.
Mike makes a very good point about manners, many of the French think non French are rude because they do not say 'bonjour' and 'au revoir' when going in the cafes, shops, doctors etc. This small common courtesy makes a big difference in how you are treated in return.
Sorry, I don't remember who posted on a previous page but absolutely love that story about asking for a refund then going round and filling the trolly up again for the fidelity card story:-) Made me smile - I'd probably have just walked out but hey, revenge is sweet.
not liars but will not tell the whole truth. just like any other business
Simon, here is SW France believe them. The rate at which they are going to the wall is frightening. I lived in the east of England for many years and know the old stories and used to hear them almost daily. These people are often so obviously up against it, the 'bigger' ones are not simply moaning for the fun of it.
You are talking about boycotting Carrefour as they treat the farmers with disrespect, look what happened in the 1970s in the UK, Tesco changed the way the Brits shopped, this effected every farmer who up to that point were operating cartels with local suppliers and getting grants from the government to produce food stuffs to be stockpiled, this lead to food mountains. suddenly Sainsbury's said they were only going to take milk from suppliers at a certain price, once this happened the other supermarkets started to control the pricing of all goods. the poor farmers had to give up and move out of farming.
Now tesco and the rest buy products from their own farms and invest money in the development of better care for animals and produce. Yes the farms have had their profit reduced but they do make a profit.
who ate UK apples in the 1970's, did you know they were weekly sprayed with lead arsenic compounds to kill pests, now no UK apples are sprayed with any dangerous and harmful pesticides, it is all down to the general public who voted with their feet and with the aid of the big supermarkets.
Getting back to the original topic, the supermarkets in France, as with all France, are lagging behind what you would expect from UK or US supermarkets, by about thirty years. They will soon catch up eventually.
By the way I know several farmers, and even though they plead poverty they are quite well off, one is the largest land owner in Northumbria. Never belief what a farmer is telling you.
Damian, Karl Marx almighty, good manners costs nothing and that goes for any strata of society.
We have noticed that the French are world champion moaners, but take no practical steps to put anything right.
We do not feel anyone is subservient and treat everyone in the same way, as long as they are polite to us and do not treat us as though we do not matter.
Interesting comments Mike. On the point of farmers absolutely. Most of our neighbours are farmers but they are gradually being replaced by people retiring from cities or trying to get gites up and running. The farmers are simply unable to survive. The dairy farmer who cuts our hay most years said that if he did not have the local people who allow him to cut their fields, the supplementary cost of feed for his cattle would see him go broke after at most two winters. This man is probably the most well off local dairy farmer. The next well off people have no good to say about any large company who buy from them. They have meat stock as well as milk and are thinking of giving that up. Another has already done so. Yes, the farmers are screwed into the ground and I feel for them but can do little more than we try to do.
Actually Damian, when I actually think about my friends and it was exactly the case outside school this morning at drop off, they bitterly complain about everything imaginable or is that just SW France?
am struggling to understand why people are all being sooo critical. Jesus Christ almighty are you all so perfect? live and let live you are a long time dead......why move to France and then moan and criticize the attitude of the people? If you want an uptight society where everyone knows their place (except the very rich and the very poor-who do what they like) move to the UK !
Grey skies 11 months of the year, the highest cost of living on the planet,uneducated youth, no industry, ruled by the establishment, and flooded with immigrants with no other agenda than a free meal ticket.
I love France and the attitude of the people. Subservience only serves the insecure.
Yesterday I was nonchalantly turned away from a small shop that opens at 9:30 by employees sitting outside THE OPEN DOOR (which incidently covered up the opening hours sign) having a smoke at 9:20am. I needed to be somewhere with food by 10am so asked them if the supermarket across the way was open... 'YES' they all answered in unison.
What can I say?
Officially still summer....