Oh my gosh, y'all are going to laugh at me, but since I always stay in either the center of large towns or out in tiny villages it never occoured to me that such places existed. I always wondered how on earth Europeans ever got their shopping errands done quickly. Silly me!

I'm still laughing that Albertson's was considered nice. Or large! To those who have have shopped at hypers on both sides of the pond how do these places compare sheer-variety-of-fresh-food-and-sizewise to places like Central Market? Are there some like, say, Meijer or giant Super Walmart, where you can buy any grocery you'd ever need, plus housewares, home and auto repair stuff, pet and aquarium supplies, clothing, prescriptions and gasoline?

Yes, and don't forget the garden center selling full sized palm trees.

>> To those who have have shopped at hypers on both sides of the pond how do these places compare sheer-variety-of-fresh-food-and-sizewise to places like Central Market?<<
Never been to CM, but by judging their website it seems like an up-scale supermarket. Is this correct?
If so, I think the hypermatches in France can very well compare with variety. You won't believe what they sell at these places! They have an enormous variety of fresh and packed food combined with all the non-food items you can imagine. Combine a quality supermarket with WalMart and you have an idea.

>> Are there some like, say, Meijer or giant Super Walmart, where you can buy any grocery you'd ever need, plus housewares, home and auto repair stuff, pet and aquarium supplies, clothing, prescriptions and gasoline? <<

Yes there are; the hypermarches in France! And most other countries in Europe will also have large supermarkets or hypermarkets selling a lot of non-food. The Neteherlands is one of the exceptions. Most of the supermarkets are rather small and mostly sell food-items, with a little of non-food (magazines, some household-ware, pens/papers etc).

>>I'm still laughing that Albertson's was considered nice. Or large! <<

Hey that's me you are laughing at ;-)
Compared to supermarkets in the Netherlands Albertson's are large (but indeed not as large as a hypermarche or WalMart Supercenter). And compared to a lot of other supermarkets I have seen in the US, for example Publix or WalMart (been mostly to California and Florida) I found Albertson to be pretty nice. Good variety, nice presentation etc.

Don't worry -- I like Albertson's and Publix, too.

A little lesson on the differences between a hypermarche and a Wal Mart- Supercenter-style supermarket (after some research on the internet of course):

Hypermarches have a very wide and semi-deep assortment. They sell a lot of different products in a lot of different product-categories (from toilet-paper to tv's and from fresh-fish to bikes). Of most of the products they have a lot of choice (a deep assortment,especially the food items and things like detergents).On other items (mostly non-food) they have a more shallow assortment.
Whereas WMSC-style shops have a less wide but mostly even deeper assortment than hypermarches. They generally have a more limited choice in products and product-categories, but of the products they sell, they have more choice than a hypermarche (for instance 20 types of toilet-paper and 100 types of detergents).

Hypermarches tend to have a larger (fresh) food department than WMSC-style supermarkets.

Hypermarches have a lot more check-outs.

Hypermarches always have a free-standing mall area before the actual hypermarche. In this mall-area you will find some speciality stores (clothes, gifts, houseware etc) and some freestanding food and service operations (pharmacy, dry-cleaner, news-stands etc). In WMSC-style supermarkets these things (especially the service operations) tend to be part of the actual supermarket.

Both Auchan (Texas-area) and Carrefour (New York/Washington/Pennsylvania-area) have tried to open hypermarches in the US at the end of the 80's. WalMart responded by opening their own HypermartUSA (Dallas, Topeka). Auchan and Carrefour ended their operations somewhere in the 90's. WalMart converted the stores to SC.

About things you can buy in hypermarches in U.S. like WalMart and Meijer - a British neighbor, shortly after arriving here from the UK went to Meijer and later to me "Gosh, what a place - you can buy a donut and a gun at the same time!

Don't think Carrefours handle guns but i may be wrong.

No guns in hypermarkets. And no medicine or vitamins > they can only be sold in pharmacies, at least in France.

Here's a new thing to check with shopping carts (heard on a radio program about marketing techniques) -- apparently is nearly impossible to pull a shopping cart backwards in Europe, in case you just passed something you forgot. You are obliged to turn around completely, getting a good look at all of the other products you might want to add to your cart.

Actually, with so many hypermarkets on 2 levels with automatic wheel locks for the escalator ramps, I understand about THOSE carts not rolling backwards, but I am wondering about ordinary supermarkets.

Maybe this is the result of the choice to give the cart four swivel wheels?
Something worth exploring next time I visit the supermarket!

Carrefour vs Wal-Mart

Sales, 2005 C- $95 billion
WM-$312.4 billion

# of stores: C-12,290 WM-6,500

Int'l Presence: C- 29 countries WM-14 countries

1st Foreign Store: C-Belgium 1969; WM- Mexico 1991

Avg size supercentres: C-107,639 sq feet; WM-186,077 sq ft

Mottos: C-"A quarter of an hour ahead" (of the competition); WM- "Always Low Prices"

Source: Wall Street Journal 11/30/06 from a very very detailed article looking at Carrefour's new chief Daniel Bernard and the challenges he faces.

Old thread, but still fascinating!

I'm in Paris and thought I might satisfy my curiosity by going out to a hypermarche with my group of gals (five of us) tomorrow. We are staying in the Palais Royale area in the 1st. Can you suggest one or two of the hypermarches we can check out and how to get there.

I saw a reference to Auchon at La Defense. This is right on our metro line (line 1). But once we get there, how to we get to the market?

The others on Kerouac's list will also work if I can get directions on how to get to any of them once I get off the metro. I have a map, but no addresses, and am somewhat "direction challenged". Am travelling with some retired teachers and school principals though. Lots of chiefs and few Indians, so if I get directions, one of them can get us there!

When you get out of metro ine 1 at the end of the line, La Défense, just follow the signs for Les Quatre Temps, which is the name of the shopping mall.

But since the La Défense transportation network is as bustling and claustrophobic as the inside of a termite nest, an alternate plan is to just get up to the surface as quickly as possible (Sortie > Parvis) and you will see the enormous shopping mall in front of you -- it is just to the left of the Grande Arche.

We avoid the Carrefour stores in the Brussels region, they are too much of a madhouse. Crowded, dirty.
For discount shopping, we head to Colruyt, which is like a stripped down hypermarche. No attempt at decor or customer attractions whatsoever. Just get in, get your stuff and get out. The oversized carts don't demand a 1 euro deposit; they're so balky and difficult to maneuver, you'd have to be nuts to want to take one off premises.
However, we love the Colruyt in the Woluwe St. Pierre neighborhood because we can get staples at very good prices, then either go across the street to one of our favorite cafes, the Royal Mail, or go shopping for gourmet foodstuffs at Rob's Fine Foods down the street--a grocery store that comes with a team of sommeliers, excellent on-site bakery and charcuterie, etc. They even have a never-ruffled concierge who offers loaner umbrellas to customers caught in the rain.

In France, we found the hypermarche in Saumur pretty relaxing. Much less hectic than the ones around Paris.

Thanks, Kerouac. Will follow your instructions to a T (or try to)!

Leburta

The Auchan store is at the end of the mall closest to the Grande Arche.

Carrefour in Brussels may be mobbed and dirty but not so the one i go to frequently in France. Very clean and spacious aisles - tremendous fresh fruits and vegetables, cheese, wine - bakery - could not be better. And recently they've added some free samples!

Most or all of the Carrefour stores in Belgium are just rebranded Maxi GB stores and do not correspond to the French concept of hypermarket.

However, there is a really good Cora hypermarket in Messancy, near the Franco-Lux border.

Kerouac:

You gave the best directions. My gals loved Auchon. Hawaiians love to bring little things home as gifts for friends and family, so the store was just perfect!

This is an easy trip by metro. It should be on a Fodor's recommended list of things to do.

Thanks again!

@Leburta: Nice to hear from a new hypermarche-fan!

Did you think they compared to say a Wal-Mart or any other store in the US?

Btw; the Carrefours in Belgium indeed are converted GB Max. Some look like 'real' hypermarches, but most are just larger supermarkets. The Cora-chain in Belgium are the only 'real' hypermarches I know in Belgium.

I also noticed the 4 swivel wheels on the French shopping carts about 10 years ago. I can not see any benefit with the four wheels. Yes maybe the cart can go sideways, but it takes more effort to keep the cart going straight forward and I simply do not need to use the sideways option very often. Maybe the designer had to much cheap French wine.

I have a Meijer store where I live and when I came back from my first trip from France I took pictures of the device that you put the coin in to release the cart to the manager of the Meijer store. He said he was aware of them and that it could save them money on getting the carts in the store, but he also said that the biggest savings is where the people who take the cart out of the store do not return the cart to many cart storage areas and when there is a wind the cart will go sailing across the parking lot and do considerable damage to parked cars and it looks like the store has paid a lot of money repairing cars.

I don't know about other counteries, but I feel that when it comes to shopping cars, Americans are lazy and inconsiderate. They could easily take on in the store from the parking lot when they arrive and at least return them to the cart storage area when they are through. There are many carts left all over the parking lot.

Randy - i've thought the same - coin deposits to return carts - would prevent losing carts by folks using them to take groceries home who don't have cars (a buck deposit someone else will return the cart if the first guy leaves it anywhere)

and would of course save on labor of teen baggers having to coral all of them - and no carts being blown across lots

just makes so much sense but i suppose the first store to do it would be risking customer loyalty

my local Kroger actually pays a guy with a truck $1 for each cart he retrieves from apartment houses, the senior center, etc. He says he's been doing this 20 years and makes a tidy sum.

But also many carts never do return and that's the big cost.

I've also seen carts with devices on them that make the wheels lock after they reach a certain distance from the stores.

As an American what I like about the hypermarches is that I can find stuff.
European stores tend to be quite strict as to what kind of store sells different items, and without a key you can't always find what you want.
For example on a recent trip to Paris, we could not find chap sticks. The groceries had moisturizers and shampoo, and make up stores had lip gloss, but the LaBello chapies we craved were only to be found at the hypermarche at Val d'Europe and in a vending machine in one of our hotels.

I finally had the opportunity to notice the difference in the handling of 2-wheel and 4-wheel drive carts since this discussion started. I am sorry (?) to say that I didn't notice any difference. I can steer both types fine and still can't imagine the problems that some of you claim to have.

I thought the large food section at Auchon was more like a Costco. I though the selection was quite wide and the quality good.

The housewares, electronics, and clothing sections were like Walmart.