Groceries in Paris
 

Was in Paris a week ago for the first time in 3 years.

Went to Bon Marche, looking for the alimentation but unless I missed something, it wasn't there! Did they close it down? All I saw were clothes on the ground floor.

Noticed some Carrefour Express stores, which seems a new thing in Paris. They seemed to be open pretty late too, until 11:30 PM. But I had gone to a regular Carrefour out in Tours and I noticed the prices are a bit more in the Carrefour Express stores.

I was hoping to find Perugina Baci but no such luck. Ended up spending a ridiculous amount of money for some biscuits at Fauchons.

Noticed a big line at La Duree. Didn't go inside but at the airport before my return flight, saw a little La Duree outlet there and they were charging over 4 Euros for a single macaroon! Are they really that pricey?

Bon Marche has two buildings, I think. Did you try them both?

The Paul in London by St Pauls charges I think £3.50 for a single macroon! Just noticed today when I bought my lunch...

No I did not. Yeah that was my recollection too and I looked around, probably to the south of the one building. But I was trying to make it out to Fauchons and saw a Metro entrance so I moved on.

Can't imagine they closed it down because they weren't making money on that section.

It seemed to be thriving when I was there in May....

Bon Marche has a huge food hall, just across the road from the main building.

The food hall at Bon Marché is not exactly considered to be a grocery store by normal people.

The Carrefour name has recently been put on a lot of stores. Besides the hypermarkets, there is Carrefour Market (which replaced the Champion chain), Carrefour City (which replaced some superette chain), and Carrefour Express, to compete with the Monop' superettes that are open until midnight.

Forget the name but I like the one across the street from Gare Montparnasse. Big American-style supermarket (with a little conveyor belt to move the shopping carts up or down).

They had some pricey wines in a locked cabinet. But a good selection overall because you saw some Americans go and fill up those carts with bottles.

kerouac, you are all knowing. When I was there in June, I wondered why my neighborhood Champion had become a Carrefour. I was not aware the entire Champion chain was no more. Sad as I really liked Champion.

Scrb11, the store across from Gare Montparnasse used to be called Inno. Now it is merely called Monoprix.

I just remembered, the Bon Marche food hall is called La Grande Epicerie. It's good for gifts but I wouldn't want to do my everyday shopping there, it's on a par with Harrod's or Selfridge's Food Hall.

The Bon Marche food store is huge, it would be hard to miss, but it is in the opposite direction as the metro stop. I've bought some coffee and things in there that weren't that badly priced. I usually stay in MOntparnasse and that Inno has been there forever, but I don't remember it changing its name to MOnprix (although everyone knew it was the same company and had the same brands, it hasn't been the original Inno for about 30 years), and I was just there in July, although it might not have registered as I always knew it was Monoprix. I remember when there used to be Prisunic stores which became Monoprix. That company owns about everything, they own Galeries Lafayette and BHV, as well as Monoprix, I think.

And don't forget they also own Franprix and Leader Price.

The name of the holding company is "Groupe Casino" -- which adds Géant, Casino and Vival to the list, of course.

Oh so sad food is all coming from one place! It's become so industrial so fast.

I went to my local Franprix and it's changed and a lot of the quality, in-expensive goods are gone, replaced by rubbish.