Le grand Satan by Bertrand by Guély, expert in Retail.

The great Satan ... by Bertrand Guély, retail expert.

Ah, this very French habit of always wanting to find those responsible and designate the culprits for the evils that overwhelm us. Whether we go back to the so-called witch hunt by the Inquisition or, more recently, remember when the average Dupont Lajoie took his finest feather as a citizen busy denouncing to the Kommandantur his very French neighbor Kipa, and even today, encouraged by the pimping state, which pays a percentage, the financial denunciation of its winners. We have always had the easy blackout and, with it, its train of jealousy, cowardice and imbecility.

Well it is ecology as for the rest and, in this case, for food, it is the Large Distribution which almost always toasts. And for good reason. Imagine the latter's self-righteousness: creating a new concept, taking financial risks, working hard as a team and making money. A lot of money. Unacceptable for France to those who go to bed late and think first of automatically reaching out; once we have invented yet another aid that could pay for the subscription to Netflix.

So, yes, the loosers let go and haro on the donkey! Margins (front, back, we do not understand well but it does not matter) allegedly abusive when no booze is moved (or rather does not know: moo!) To be sodomApplel (ize) every 2 years by paying nearly € 1,500 the last precious Californian toy. Unbearable pressure on the PPF (Pov 'Small Supplier) and the PPP (Pov' Small Producer) without making any discernment between the negotiation of men with agribusiness giants fighting on equal terms and the penny that is missing indeed sometimes to the 'real little' farmer to complete the season and pay his crushing charges, supposed collusion with politicians - other villains quite designated before the Lord - while the hyper has long been one of the only and last providers of jobs of deprived regions. Image of a bad citizen who screwed up everything without wanting to recycle, when supermarkets have to tear the polypropylene cell and the metal clips from a parcel of apples before they can finally throw them in the cardboard bin, it is nowadays of the better tone, in the Rive Gauche parties, to break the supermarket and want to cut out the intermediaries.

Apart from M'Bappé's mishap and access to the COVID vaccine, almost everything is the fault of the GD.

Once is not customary: think a little and, before throwing the baby out with the bathwater, ask yourself 3 good questions.

1. Which distribution channel guarantees me the best food security?

I can say it loud and clear: when the open air markets, neighborhood greengrocers and short food chains of various kinds do more or less what they want, supermarkets are themselves super-regulated, super-controlled and must comply with legislation that is at best finicky, at worst Brussels. You can continue to rehash angrily some old examples of merguez repackaged in butcher's shop by a Chef who is a little too under pressure, but you can also open your eyes and go further.

Experience next summer - if God wills, and COVID too, that we can come out freely - when you lazily drag your branded flip flops with the horde of parigots who marvel at each trestle of the famous 'Provencal market' and really educate yourself. Marseille soap - unprotected appellation - imported from China or Turkey, 'Provencal' olives arriving in 200kg barrels from Morocco to be repackaged here and pompously renamed 'Façon Nyons' or 'Façon broken des Baux', the same packages wooden rosettes in which are ranged Spanish peaches / nectarines categories 2 Scarface variety (on their good profile, skin defect below), a stand selling loose olives with about the level of hygiene of a BMC in Indochina, the Arles sausage that comes from Eastern Europe ... but what are the police doing? Answer: not much. We take the money where there is some and the DGCCRF has easier to get messed up at a hypermarket if the soybean markings do not specify 'mung bean' than with a Chinese greengrocer who cultivates it in a plastic basin. on the ground in a paved backyard of the 13th ...

Of course, not everything is perfect in supermarkets either, but the vigilance to which they are subject by the Periwinkles of Fraud obliges them to do well or much better than the other distribution channels. Of course, we get a little lost in the multitude of labels plastered on the shelf and packages but we can use it more securely than with the 'fruits from home' or 'Balance your Import' from the kings of the trestle. .

2. Where will I find the best prices?

Quality comes at a price. Behind this cliché hides, however, one of the major problems of the F&V sector because if the customer wants everything - beautiful, good, healthy, clean, ethical, local - for the products, he does not want to pay anything and the discomfort is there. The price war between generalist retailers to snatch up shares in a market that is no longer growing and siphoned off by other formats is the main culprit for the loss of quality. Sell summer fruits for less? We make fewer passages, costly in personnel costs, for the picking and we collect everything at once, ripe or not. Bananas as a discount image all year round at the head of the gondola? We forget the Rain Forest Alliance and the French banana from the West Indies to buy the Latin containers still lying around at the dock of the last arrival boat.

Once again, all other things being equal, the prices of GD are generally much better placed than its competitors but its image of usurer nevertheless sticks well to the skin.

3. If I want as much choice as possible, where do I buy?

Insane how the consumer rebels that there is a hole / a broken product in his supermarket stall when he is otherwise ready to receive a basket of amapes ... of which he does not know the contents at the time. advance! Unjust this intransigence on the quality of products that he nevertheless chooses himself in front of the stall when he is ready to discard with understanding, once arrived at the house, a few coins that the merchant has surreptitiously slipped at the bottom of the shop. bag of apricots and which will probably not have supported staying in the trunk of the car during the beach session. Indecent this patience to queue like "no problem, we're on vacation" while a poor cashier who has to take a moment to type a barcode that does not go to the shower risks no less than stoning.

So, yes, the ranges of a hypermarket are much wider and deeper than elsewhere. The real choice is here.

For many reasons, some of which are probably justified, GD has a deplorable image with consumers. A real abuse of economic dependence or a pressing need to scrape away what it is investing in a bloody price war? Rather sanitary or victim of the syndrome "while digging, one always finds something" which one finds in a police officer who verbalizes an illegible number plate to complete his quota? Shameless or adjusted margins to cover high breakage inherent in the unassisted sales model?

My purpose is not here to convince high school girls in Che's fair-trade cotton t-shirt and with L214 tattooed on the shoulder (be careful, the laser hurts when it has to be erased because it protrudes from the wedding dress ... ) or football-style hipsters in suits with too short pants.

What I'm just trying to tell you is that, when it comes to choice, price and food safety, there is probably no better today than GD, which you systematically pillory.

"The concept of the Charentaise":

The supermarket is like a Charentaise. We're fine in it but we don't want to be seen with it. Funny to see how the slayers of the GD are the same who obediently push the cart on Saturdays with mum crossing out her shopping list while holding the youngest by the collar and Mister who only comes to life when he arrives finally in the beer department ...