It seems to me, from living in France for a while, that they lead a generally nicer day-to-day existence than we do in the UK. This may just be my romanticising of the foreign, the exciting, the new, (the sun!)... or it may be because of certain values and traditions which the French have held onto, unlike their Anglophone neighbours. Take supermarkets for example. As a recent Observer Comment article laid out so very well, supermarkets in the UK contribute to obesity, binge drinking, the degeneration of town centres and the growing gap between the rich and poor. Of course, there are supermarkets all over France too, which have no doubt had some similar detrimental effects. Indeed the Carrefour supermarket chain has a similar dominance to Tesco (about 30 % of the market share) with 25% of the country's food retail market share. But even so, supermarkets in France do not seem to have such a heavy presence or such a violently detrimental impact upon society as they do in the UK. While the big supermarkets and buying groups take up two-thirds of the food shopping market in France, this figure is over 97% in the UK. French supermarkets have developed without being allowed to pose such a potent threat to town centres or to the income disparity. Whilst French people certainly do shop in supermarkets, supermarkets are not the centre of their lives. They haven’t taken over the world or gained a sweeping monopoly on nearly all consumer goods. Instead you see specialist shops scattered around French towns. Rather than dying, sterile, generic high streets, you see beautiful town centres bustling with a healthy balance of independent shops and chains. You see local bakers, butchers, florists, newsagents and pharmacies in every ‘quartier’ of the city, and most importantly you see local people using these shops daily. In France there are over 80 000 independent retailers (40 000 are boulangeries and over 7000 charcuteries), more than double the number in the UK.
Now my feeling on this may be somewhat effected by the fact that France has fewer medium-sized towns than the UK. We have over one thousand towns, whereas the French do not even have a word to express ‘town’, just ‘village’ for village and ‘ville’ for city. In cities and villages the impact of supermarkets may be less evident. I do indeed come from a small English market town where the impact of supermarkets is heavily felt: a supermarket giant moves in and slowly but surely the town centre dies. But even with this factor in mind, there is still a subtle but significant contrariety between our countries when it comes to shopping. In Britain’s cities you can hardly walk down a street without seeing a Tesco metro or a Sainsbury’s local. You do not see that in France.
Why, then, are supermarkets less dominant in France? Perhaps, as my lovely French host lady suggests, it’s because the French value the quality of their food more than English people do? That certainly must play a part. Most French people, for example, place high value on the quality of their ‘pain’, and would rather buy it from a good ‘boulangerie’ than from a mediocre supermarket. I wonder if it is more to do with the fact that the French, and most importantly the French state, have a sharper awareness of not allowing the ‘free market’ to dictate all and let the rich to get unnecessarily richer at the expense of the masses. Rather than allowing supermarket giants to take over, France has protected its specialist and independent shops. In 1996 it introduced the Raffarin law, which meant that any store larger than 300 square metres would have to gain full planning consent in order to be built. It also made the set-up of giant hypermarkets selling non-food products extremely difficult. In introducing this legislation, the French state protected a more friendly, human and interesting way of shopping. It prevented a small number of supermarket owners lining their pockets with extortionate and unnecessary amounts of money, as we see in the UK. It allows people to put money back into their local economy, instead of towards business leaders elsewhere in the country or world. It allows for a fairer distribution of money among local business leaders. Perhaps most importantly, it allows for variety. Who would want a Tesco-only world? A world where you can’t spend a couple of happy hours browsing in quirky, cosy, crazy or ornate shops? A world where staff dress in the same uniform and speak the same “Tesco corporate-generic-boring-policy” gobbildigook? A world where it’s impossible to have true personal service, connections or compassion? Not me, and I expect not most other people too, if they really thought about it.
In my research I was disappointed to discover that in 2009 the French planning laws were softened. Now, full planning permission is no longer mandatory for stores smaller than 1,000 square metres in towns with more than 20,000 habitants. Instead of requiring the permission of local artisans, applications can be approved by the town mayor, local architects and businessmen. Fortunately, from my experience, this change does not yet seem to have had too much of an adverse impact. Let’s hope, nonetheless, that the new Socialist government may realise the potential damage these new laws could create, and reverse them.
“Supermarkets bring jobs and provide struggling families with convenient, affordable shopping,” I hear Tory MPs cry. “Preventing large businesses from developing will stunt growth.” Au contraire, I and many others before me argue; the small but significant restrictions that the French state places on big businesses in fact stimulates growth – a healthy and fair growth. It stimulates the perpetuation of local, family, individual businesses that are not out to make millions or to destroy communities, but to make an honest living, and to contribute to and interact with the community around them. It stimulates a fair distribution of wealth and thus a happier society. Finally it stimulates a more interesting quality of life that is miles beyond what a Tesco world could ever provide. If we want to make Britain a fairer, happier and more interesting place, I argue that we take an olive leaf out of the French’s book, and actively stop supermarkets seriously damaging local communities and society at large. We don’t need to get rid of them altogether, but we could stop letting the demands of ‘big business’ be considered more important than everyone else’s quality of life.1GrumpyYoungLady
