Paul, I had a colleague, who lived in a “realy similar” place of yours, who was complaining about the shop which would sale products from LIDL at an expensive price, and who was saying what a pity it was, not to find local product as in Pluherlin mini market. We use to eat in a restaurant “very similar” of the one you’re talking about, but then again, the menu du jour was excelent for 10€, but the owner of the place loves you or hates you. We were lucky, she liked us, but ! The thing is, for the mini market/boulangerie etc… the Mairie should be very carefull of recruiting the right motivated persons, with a solid business plan, because in a small commune like that, if you suit the goal witch I think is a bit of good and local products, you can survive as a shop keeper. If you try to sell LIDL or Super U produce, people will drive to the next big town !
I’m not passionate I’m just reporting the effect that the selfish behaviour of one individual has had on a small rural town near where I live. I also find that his obsession with the Third Reich odd to say the least. I have visited the location with a local French friend. Harry has decided to take a moral high ground by claiming that the poor rich person has done nothing wrong and is being picked on by people who are calling him a Nazi. Harry lives in another world. This is my last response to this thread, I’ve got better things to do than respond to the ramblings of an uninformed person.
Talking about Nazy, we’ve been to a vide grenier today, and I was gobsmacked by the look of a man, his haircut and his moustache, that was just a big bigger than you know … 
It couldn’t be the man you are talking about ?
On holiday, or looking for a new location ??? 
Always assuming that you can drive to the next town - the aim seems to have been to support the older population who might not be so mobile, so the mentality is probably that it’s OK to re-sell Lidl or Super U produce. Of course, even then, you can’t sell it for much more and therein lies a problem for sustainability of a business.
Actually I really like Pluherlin and would have loved to have a property there but there wasn’t anything that we liked at the time we were looking (in fact we based ourselves at 6 place des puits a couple of times when looking for properties). I usually pick up breakfast croissants and pains de chocolat from the Pluherlin boulangerie when we are over.
We never actually ate in the Restaurant in the village (I’ll come clean - Le Lion d’Or), mainly because it wasn’t open in the evenings and while there is still DIY to do embracing the French tradition of a large lunch means nothing much would get done for the day (not necessarily a bad thing, you understand 
).
I have, however, recently discovered that it was something of a meeting place for the ex-pats in the village - not that knowing that would have made me more likely to attend.
So, yes I agree that local politics can play a big part but to run a sucessful business requires a client base and the population of Pluherlin is just less than 1500 individuals in 635 foyers - so 50% more households and twice the population of our village.
no less informed than you.
As I say and I stand by it he is a small part of the bigger problem for rural towns.
Population is decreasing over the past several years in all the communes around it and mortality rate is up and births are down. This is a bigger problem, what the communes need to do is buy up the houses and rent them to younger folks or sell them with conditions they are to live there for a period of years, like many other communes are starting to do further up north.
Not a moral high ground i just think him buying up nazi memorabilia is very off. But it does not make him a nazi, it just in my personal opinion is a bit odd.
Maybe the morality of it is hes bloody loaded and others are not. I have made no such claim than he has done nothing wrong nor have I refereed to him as a poor rich person. Then again maybe that is the biggest issue. Jealousy of his money… He is a problem BUT he is as i will say again and again a small part of a bigger problem.
A maire with a vision can really get things going. I know another village that has bought a building and gone out to recruit a baker - our village in Eure-et-Loir has supported the local bar/restaurant (not particularly successfully, I must admit). In the village where I’m restoring a house in Correze, the mairie is the Post office, bank, and a couple of other things besides - that’s with fewer than 200 residents. A village that size in the UK probably wouldn’t have a post office and certainly not a bank. (Of course in Limousin, the fact that only a minority of inhabitants live in the bourg, with far more scattered in hameaux around the commune, rather complicates matters.)
yup our marie did just that, we now have a florist and a boulanger again. Lots of effort put into the community and things are slowly taking a turn upwards. It helps we have a school so lots of young uns around and affordable housing too.
It isnt just the villages that are suffering the loss of shops - Carmaux is a regular sized town but I have noticed that, over the past couple of years, the centre has become desolate because of closed-down shops. Many have been left empty and it really makes the place look run down. It isnt down to a lack of residents. I can only put it down to the fact that there is a fairly large Super U on the edge of town and a smaller Intermarche closer in. Those, plus internet shopping for non-food items. The death of the High Street in France is much the same as that in the UK…
like most villages and towns. We had a town shop recently get taken over. they used to stock red bull specifically for me on request at a reasonable price. The new shop owners while they stock it now want nearly 3€ a tin and its the small kind. While I want to support a local shop, when they put their prices up (cadbury choc fingers, 2€ 50 a box against just over a euro in supermarkets.) many other things are just way too overpriced. No one will shop there when the prices are so extreme. Luckily for s our mayor is very proactive at filling empty shops although still no takers for the mini supermarket and our local cafe closed but now the bakers has a small coffee shop but machin coffee.
Our small town always surprises me by continuing to have town centre bakeries, a charcuterie, two butchers, a pharmacist, an electrical shop and others despite having a good Super U and Intermarché on the outskirts plus a Lidl and a Leader Price as well as two markets a week. There is obviously a strong demand for the small specialist shops, it’s not all about the lowest price.
I’ve been looking for someone like you Harry; last September I was given some promotional cans of Red Bull when I took part in a car rally. I’ve been trying to give them away ever since. I hate the stuff and not even my children would take it off my hands.
strangly enough I have not had a red bull or other energy drink in nearly 3 months. On top of the 20+ mugs off coffee I had a day it was a tad too much. Im now on 10 mugs a day but plan to get that lower still.
We have a hairdressers, butchers, bakers with coffee, florists. Only 1 market a week but its very small market and the shop. Unfortunately while people will try to use the shop in times like they are people cannot afford to pay 3 times the price for goods. If she sorted her prices out then allot more people would shop there.