French Market stalls question

The trouble with regulations is that they make no allowance for common sense.
I once saw supermarket staff removing bananas from a display because they had passed their sell by date.
The bananas were still green!

Helen I don’t claim to be an Inspector or responsible for the variable quality of bureaucratic efficiency for the whole of France, but most markets, which we are talking about originally are run under local Ordinances - most of which are ‘posted’ somewhere in the market area; Shops are almost certainly checked even more frequently - so either Carrefour know they still conform to whatever the law requires OR the are flouting the law. If it bothers you about bad fruit offered as Class 1, you have two options - first being not to buy the stuff, and second to report the store - presumably to the appropriate health and welfare department;
Personally i choose the former…

Adding to Norman’s reply… I use a local Carrefour and now know the Owner/staff well enough to feel comfortable in (discretely) mentioning/questioning whatever…

Perhaps you could do the same at the Customer/Acceuil or whatever… talking quietly and not broadcasting to the whole store… should get a good result.
I should add… that I would do this at any Supermarket/shop… if I had serious reservations about what they were “up to”… :wink: a quiet word, skillfully applied, can bring out the best in folk.

I don’t know about the baskets, but my friends and i have DEFINTELY been ripped off in markets, especially in Provence, most notably Lourmarin where we were charged 43 euros for olives and preserved lemons and 99 euros for four slabs of cheese! My friends were too shy and embarrassed to make a fuss. I was outraged. Tradesmen like that put us all off markets and the honest sellers suffer.

I had an unexpected episode when buying cheese at a French market… but it was my own fault. I had tasted the morsel offered… found it delicious… and asked for a nice big piece. Trouble was I had not thought of the price per kilo… :frowning:

I later found that this cheese was a local speciality and thus was much more expensive than the bog standard cheeses I was used to buying in my UK supermarket.

That was an important lesson for me… and I now make a point of checking prices first… before I get carried away… as there are so many delicious local cheeses to choose from… wonderful. :hugs:

What did you do about your friends’ unhappy experience…?? Were you able to report/discuss the situation with someone in authority ??

this is not a health or safety issue. Getting ripped-off is annoying, but don’t pay those sort of prices. It you do, then you are simply encouraging the trader.

When a stall trader tried that on us, we just walked away…

I often give the price of cheese I want not the weight. That way I might be disappointed by the small portion but my pocket is protected. I am always impressed by the detail provided on the printout from the till at my local market cheese van.

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that’s a good idea David… that particular incident happened years ago, when we were holidaying here…

Now we live here, I am more au fait with how things are done… and much more understanding of just why some things seem expensive… :hugs:

In my friend’s case, the cheese was good but nothing special. I remember one was Gruyère.

Ah… so not a local artisan … I’m surprised they actually paid the 99€ I wouldn’t have been able to… :wink:

We were shocked in the SW last year seeing local comté which sells here for 14 - 17€/kg (depending on age) being sold for over 30€/kg. If it was a Swiss gruyère it could have been more.