FRENCH GROCERY STORE DIFFERENCES TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO! 

"Caddie" est particulièrement utilisé pour désigner les chariots en métal fournis dans les supermarchés, il existe d'autre mot en français pour ceux en tissus montés sur deux roulettes, tel que "cabas" (sac de course, également utilisé quand il y a des roues dessous) ou "chariot", avec des variantes comme "chariot de courses" ou "chariot à roulettes" (vieilli).

@@AlkoLoiK stop acting like a gay man bro

My local Intermarche and Carrefour both have toilets, Carrefour is clean (I will say no more!)

Les magasins leclerc ont des toilettes, pour trouver une réelle propreté c'est en Suisse !

There are reasons why washing is superior, and reasons why not washing is superior. Obviously, I think all Americans (well, certain nutjobs aside) wish our chickens were vaccinated against salmonella

Yes ! It is more natural and it is actually not a good idea to refrigerate eggs because it makes the shell more porous to bacteria. So in the end they last longer on the shelf :)

Eggs in France are processed, just not washed with water. The brushing eliminates 99% of any nasties I haven't seen crap or feathers on eggs, even in organic stores, in over 20 years.

@@quiggleyscripple This excessive hygienism, mainly coming from the USA, does more harm than good to the immune defenses of the human body. Scientific studies following city families and rural families have proven to be in contact with farm animals (or others) strengthens the immune defenses. And children living in the countryside tend to have fewer disabling allergies and fragility than children living in the city. I know that it is not necessary to do generality since in the countryside, there are phytosanitary products, but it has been a long time since I drink tap water, it is bottled, unfortunately.

@@quiggleyscripple I have two hens and a small colony of field rats that come to feed on the grain of the hens. So I know what I'm talking about. You should know that the rats of the fields are much cleaner than those of the cities since they do not live in the excrement of human sewers. It is certain that a dirty rat, it is immediately less cute than a living rat in a burrow. Field rat = rat des champs (in French)

*voir

I have several bags (I bought as souvenirs) from my trips to Bon Marche in Paris that I use at home for my groceries.

Yesss, I love the Monoprix ones

yes me too.nice grocery bags as collection

Lol this is interesting.

My grocery bag belonged to my mother. I think it may be 50 years old, and no sign of ageing.

Hello! Yeah, it's not forbidden.

you can even drink it before buying the bottle

​@@pikminologueraisin2139not true

​@@pikminologueraisin2139no, you're not allowed to do that

Moi aussi, j'ai pensé pendant longtemps que ceux qui ouvraient des packs pour ne prendre qu'un article n'avaient pas le droit de faire ça 😅

No worries 😉.

Ah ah, it happens to me too !

The ticket scanning to get out is fairly new, I guess they had theft issues with the self-checkouts. I initially saw it in Lidl, but now even the more upscale Monoprix has it too

Hahaha! you poor thing. I'm glad you told me bc that would have happened to me. I'm like Mr. Bean when I shop.

it depends where you go, I had this receipt scan thing on some of the supermarket I shop to maybe 1 or 2 years ago, but it has gone out of fashion since then. I guess it ultimately depends if there is enough security personnel to catch thieves ?

Yes. I came here to say the same thing. Many of the differences cited in this video were SOP in the US. Around the time I first arrived in France (in 1969) to be an au pair, the US had gotten away from deposits on beverage containers, but the French still required a deposit. A few years later, the US (starting with my current home state, Oregon) began instituting deposits and the French dropped the deposits. Colorful and/or scented TP used to be pretty standard in the US. At the same time, in France, I saw all sorts of unfamiliar TP. Often it came in stacks of little squares and was about as absorbent as wax paper. Some rolls were like crepe paper. Supermarkets in France have become much bigger and similar to those in the US, but there are still enough differences to make life interesting for visitors.

Might have been what part of the country. They were bagging groceries in thick(er than now) paper bags back in the 60s in NM & Tx. Can’t say about the rest of the country. They closed early and they didn’t really have a pharmacy or cosmetics aisle. You could get baby shampoo and baby oil but not much else. I can’t even say if they carried aspirin.

So interesting! France must feel like you've gone back in time in some ways!

Yes! I forgot all about the colorful, scented toilet paper that we used to have in the 70s. I can still remember the scent of Charmin. My grandma used to get TP with little flowers printed on it that matched her bathroom.

A long time ago we had free bags at the supermarket. It is now forbidden, You have to buy or bring your reusable bags or baskets or what you want… this is the same in most of the European countries and the goal is to reduced the use of plastic. About trolley I never saw anybody with a trolley in a supermarket, except the ones locatif in center of (because people are walking) otherwise some persons use trolley to go to the open market.

The opening of the packs to get individual bottles is due to a French law that forbids stores from selling 6 packs of bottles or equivalent not the same 1 liter bottles and that also forbid them from making rebates to buyers that buys 6 bottles vs. buyers that buys only one. A shop that would prevent customers from opening packs and taking only one bottle would break that law. This law doesn't apply to yogurts or similar products ("article L. 122-1 du code de la consommation".....).

Not everywhere, it s forbiden now to take only one bottle..it dépends supermarket and drinks too

​@@BR-fx8uyJamais vu ça en France ?

Colored toilet paper became since a few years very fashionnable(!!) you can find dark purple one, red, fluo punk,… the price is about 3 times classic ones.

in France the pink one is the most classic

Hm, strange, I’m Canadian and have lived in many provinces (in Alberta now) and have seen coin - carts over the last 25 years. Definitely not everywhere but I would not say uncommon. This includes in Muskoka Ontario.

How people can be that dumb 😭

Ah ouais quand même 😂

lol, the length one could go just to gather a couple of coins

Yes, some stores have scales in the produce section where the customer is expected to weigh their own produce and print the sticker. That way the cashier just has to scan the bag at the register. But other stores aren't like this and the cashier will do it. It can be majorly embarrassing at busy times when you realize the particular store you're in requires you to do it yourself and you show up at the register without weighing things first. It's happened to me at Super U (the store I regularly go to is the opposite so I wasn't in the habit of weighing and ticketing things myself). Usually it's the customer who has to hold up the line and run back to weigh and tag it. You got lucky the cashier did it for you! Glad you enjoy my content. Thank you!

It is actually very widespread, common. With some exceptions of course, only small shops don't have self weighting machines (because those machines would take some extra space ?)

Yes, she mentioned that in a video maybe last year. Saved me that embarrassment once in Auxerre!

Depends on the store, I am French and sometimes I ask someone from the sti3if I must do it. So being French and a man, so if I need to ask no one should be ashamed to make an er3🤣

Great love from Bayeux! hope you'll be back soon.

You're very welcome!

It's because of a law that was passed a few years ago at the (a bit strong) request of consumer associations.

@@lilimaka3721 Few years ago ? I'm 45 and it always has been like that as far as I remember.

@@kochka22 I wrote "a few years ago" because I forgot the date of this change. While searching, I found a law from 2001. Being a mother of two children at the time, I had not seen the merits of this change. I hadn't thought enough about it. That's probably why I remember.

Here the standard is 1.5 liter for normal water bottles. Apparently that's more than 50 fl oz, and three times a "regular" american bottle ??? I thought everything was bigger in America.

But I didn't know as french too, that we could get out a botle from its packaging. i thought it was just a thing that we could do in Morocco or other countries... Mais je ne savais pas entant que français également, que nous pouvions sortir une bouteille de son emballage. Je pensais que c'était juste uen chose que nous pouvions faire au Maroc ou autres pays...

@@AdrienFAGOT Tout le monde sait ça en France pourtant

@@oliviercarrot3780 bah merde, j'ai loupé des petites économies 😂je suis vraiment teubé

@@AdrienFAGOT nope didn't know either, to me the people doing it were just weirdos (and still are)

I think pharmacists are specialists pretty much everywhere in the world, but you don't need a specialist to prescribe or recommend paracetamol, pepto bismol, diflucan or a laxative in many cases. In the UK you can just pick these things up in the aisle and take them to the till without ever explaining what is wrong out loud. In France/ Belgium you have to ask for it... and the brand names may be different so when you ask, you might have to explain what it's for... which means other customers might realise that you have indigestion/ constipation/ thrush or whatever... Whenever I travel to the UK I pick up a bunch of medication just to spare myself the awkward moments.

@@SunshineJoleen pharmacists yes, but I think this person also meant that people working at the pharmacy are specialists. In Australia for example, while there would obviously be some pharmacists working with prescriptions, at the back, sometimes even "behind the scenes", most employees would have 0 health/pharmacy-related degrees. In France, and perhaps in Belgium, the actual pharmacist will be at the checkout, and other employees in most pharmacies will have a degree that allows them to work in a pharmacy, without being an actual pharmacist. In really, really large ones (not common), you'll then have employees at the checkout or in the "parapharmacy" section (beauty, hygiene products...) who are not required to have any degree. But that's very uncommon.

Yes, you're right. One's reluctant to use the caddie because indeed of its "senior" connotation, but once one gets used to it, no more hesitation. Some indeed can turn out to be quite sophisticated, with multidimensional wheels enabling them to climb stairs. And the die-hard fashionista can even strut her designer-branded one, with logo all over the place !

Very interesting! May I ask how you were able to live in Korea for 5 years? What was your job? I'd like to live there one day, but the visa requirements are so strict.

@@Yellow-Rose Assuming here, but probably military, or military adjacent (industry).

@@adrien5834 thank you

LOL - ma Mamie l'appelait "le panier a roulette" . Elle me manque, mais désormais je prendrai mon caddie de mamie pour faire mes course. Trop mignon. Je ne connaissais pas ce terme. Merciiiii !

Lol All parents do that, or to train the child or because they do not speak the language 😂

@@khaelamensha3624 In my case my two years of French was better than my mother's which she hadn't used for thirty years.

@@johncrwarner Kids learn language so fast. My children have been raised in a mmultilanguage environment, sometimes it may be... Well uncomfortable when as a parent you can not express yourself and you just had to admit that your 4 years old daughter is able to speak in 3 languages 😂 Better get used to it, as some years later she add two more 🤣

Yes! I live in Toronto Canada and often see this at grocery stores that are walking distance from high rise apartment buildings

We have these l locks in in the us …..and Aldi charges for bags.

I live in the interior of BC. My favourite supermarket used to have coin locks on the shopping carts, but not any more. Reusable bags are the norm and you can even buy branded ones at my local farmers market. Vancouver is about to ban plastic grocery bags. Self checkout has been here for at least 5 years and is getting more popular. Even Shoppers Drug Mart now has self checkout. Online grocery ordering with pickup or home delivery started about 5 years ago and ballooned during the pandemic. And yes, I do have a shopping caddie.

Kroger has the wheel locks as well.

We have to pay for bags in the DMV (DC, MD, VA)

I remember being able to buy coloured - don't remember it being scented - loo paper as well. I seem to remember it came in pink or peach as well as white, again this would have been the 1970s and 1980s [New Zealand and UK] but it gradually disappeared. I always thought it was a pity because, if nothing else, it provided a point of focus as far as colour went against the white chinaware that sort of overwhelms the rooms.

The colored dye chemicals used to make fun TP colors were found to be bad for our health. I remember blue and lilac toilet paper up to mid 1980s.

I have a dim memory of seeing blue toilet paper in my grandparent's house. It went with their bathroom's decor! 😄 That was in the early to mid 1980s.

You're very welcome!

I used to buy different coloures, blue, green, yellow, pink, crem, could, match to bathroom, such fun , spending ages choosing a colour now can have any colour so long as its white

I remember the colored toilet paper too. It was discontinued after concerns that some sensitive individuals could be allergic to the dyes.

also coz a good portion of french people don't digest milk well once in adulthood so drinking milk is not a major thing. but yes fresh/pasteurized milk taste different.

@@flirtinggracefullplatypus8496 True. I don't digest milk since adulthood and I'm not the only one. But I don't know if it concerns french people in particular ?

Were do you find fresh milk in the store?

@@ndoucette9676 refrigerated section, usually with fruit juice

@@ndoucette9676 it depends on the store but either with tropicana juices( not the clear bottle) or with the yoghourts. monoprix have it idk for the smaller groceries strores.

Another thing you've probably noticed at Aldi (a German chain) is that the cashiers have chairs to sit in during their shifts. This is common in European stores, but rare in N. America, where they must stand for hours.

Safeway doesn't bag your groceries.

Thank you! Love that you use them in you lessons.

J'ai le sentiment qu'une fois à la retraite vous allez déménager dans le Maine-et-Loire.

You're very welcome!

Thank you! You too!

My pleasure!

So sweet, Billy, thank YOU!

Yep, my grandmother always had blue or pink in her bathroom.

Glad you enjoyed it!

You're welcome! Yes, gotta love Monoprix!!

Glad you like them! Merci

You can find raw milk in some organic shops ; and at open markets some crémiers carry it, and most producers in small towns markets.

I never thought milk straight from a cow without pasteurization was safe to drink. Doesn't it contain certain bacteria that's not fit for human consumption?

@@Yellow-Rose if the cow is infected. If she's healthy, it will host lactobacterias and tend to ferment spontaneously if not refrigerated or kept for too long. Fermented milk is not a suitable environment for pathogenic bacterias, so it's generally safe (yogurt, kéfir, lait ribot, lbem, etc.). But pasteurised milk has lost its protective bacterias, so if there is a contamination later in the chain, it is in fact more likely to develop an unhealthy amount of pathogens. There have been cases of listeria infection in 20th century France, which were caused by pasteurised industrial cheese, never with raw milk cheese...

@@Yellow-Rose The production and sale of raw milk are strictly controlled. But there is still a risk of contamination by listeria. It should be kept refrigerated and consumed very quickly, or boiled. The risk is low if it is bought straight after being collected (still warm), as it is still sterile. The sale of raw milk is forbidden in some countries (part of the US, Canada, Scotland, ...)

that's because microfiltered is fresh...

I have quite a few of them by now - charities often sell them as a means to make money - and I ensure each different handbag or basket now has a token attached to either the zip or the handle. Means I always have a token on me.

Jamais mis mes oeufs au frigo, jamais eu de merdouille...Du moment qu'on respecte les dates.

@@adrien5834 C'est legit écrit sur le paquet donc faut pas prendre de chance.

Why shocked ? Milk is sterilised here that's all

Coles and woolies don't use coins for their trollies, I've only seen them at Aldi. Also, I've never seen eggs in the fridge section.

We’ve had scented toilet paper in 0z for a long time

I'm sorry: there were Auchan stores in Texas?! As a french person, this is absolutely wild, I didn't know about this! Thanks for the info.

Here ,read that : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auchan#United_States

@@blueiris574 Yes. There were 2 in Houston. I don't think there were any others, but I could be wrong. One was near my house. We shopped there a lot and I even applied for a job there, but ended up going somewhere else, because they drug their feet getting back to me. Ironically I later got a job at a seafood processing plant that supplied them with shrimp and catfish. They closed both locations in the early 00's. I'm not sure why. The one near my old house became a huge, super cool Vietnamese version of Auchan, called Veit Hoa. The other location temporarily served as an emergency shelter for Katrina evacuees. I moved out of TX shortly after Katrina for unrelated reasons, so I can't tell you more. But they were the reason that Aldi's coin op carts weren't a foreign concept to me. And I didn't realize they were French. I knew they were European, but never knew which country.

@@plumebrise4801 I agree with most of this, but I suspect the real reason why they closed the Beltway location. It was built in a nice neighborhood, that eventually turned bad. They were probably bleeding inventory. That was the demise of a lot of the stores in that area. As for the 610 location, that part of Houston was also not that great. It might have been initially, but that was way out of my normal haunts.

Yes, some stores have you weigh your own produce but not all. It can get tricky if you go to a store where you have to weigh it and aren't used to doing that. Then you get to the register and have to hold up the line while you run back to weigh it and get the sticker. It's happened to me several times lol

I avoided buying produce at grocery stores in France for several years because I wasn’t sure of the whole sticker thing. I think I had ptsd from holding up the line and not really understanding what I needed to do to fix the problem. 😂

Thank you!! So happy you enjoy them!

Oh thank you!

Oh boy, now that goes above and beyond just leaving them in the parking lot! Takes it to a whole new level

African immigrants in France are known for doing that.

A friends mother used to take the trolley home but she kept it for the week and then returned with it. She was very annoyed when we returned it to the store.

Me too. 😊

We have a law stipulating that any product can be sold individually. As extreme exemple, you could only buy one strawberry.

Not surprising ,30 Millions of Mexicans have French ascendance (It's 23,44% of the population ,and 2 Millions are still fully French-blooded) (Mexico is the 2nd with the most French-ascendance in the world ,under France (of course) and above Argentina/Brazil/Uruguay with 13,6 Millions (17% of the population and 3 country combined) ,the US with 8,06 Millions (2,41% of the population) and Canada with 5 Millions (13,51% of the population)) There was French immigration to Mexico from the 1830's until the 1950's ,sometime founding entire village . And the reasons why it doesn' seem to be any French in Mexico or South American ,is because of this concept that is pretty much sacred to us :Assimilation ,in Mexico ,they assimilated to ... well the Mexican ,in South America they assimilated to the Italian that immigrated there (We have the exact same culture ,we just use a different language ,5 Millions of the French population is of Italian origin ,and they don't speak Italian too and unless they tell you that they are of Italian origin ,you wouldn't know (Except if they didn't Francized their family name) ,there is also 11 Millions of Italians in Italy who can speak French which is 18,64% of their population). And it's the same in South Africa where they assimilated to the Afrikaans . But this concept does not work anymore because the Africans that come does not know about it . (Well they know ,it's just that they don't care) Fun Fact :The French are the reasons for why Mexico ,South Africa and Australia have a wine industry (And Argentina too ,but here it's a responsabilities shared with the Italians). Fun Fact 2 :The reason there was French migrations to South Africa was French Protestant (Huguenot) fleeing the religious war (South Africa also happens to be one the 5 place in the world with *PERFECT* climate for Wine production), while the reason there was French migrations to Mexico ,Argentina and Australia is because they are 3 of the place with *PERFECT* climate for Wine production. And the last (Of 5) country with *PERFECT* climate for Wine production is Algeria ,it's just that that they sabotaged it after we gave them their independance (Yup because they were utterly obliterated ,the only thing they could do in the end is terrorist attack (With bomb) in which they always ended up killing more Algerians than French each time they did it (Usually 5 time more Algerian than French) ,but De Gaulle decided to let them go so Political victory but military defeat for them) 1,8 Millions tons of wine a per year before WW2 (European France alone was the biggest producer of wine with 5,4 Millions tons, the territories of Algeria alone was 4th in the world in term of productions) 1,5 Millions in 1962 (European France still 1st with 7,5 Millions ,Algeria alone is still 4th), and 50K tons of wine produced in 2017 (They are 32th out of 52th country that produces it) Tunisia also has the *PERFECT* climate but would need a bigger area so I didn't include them (Even tho they have fallen out too ,200K tons in 1963 ,to 27K tons in 2017)

Interesting, I didn't know that!

Yes, really easy to bring a cart back so I wish more stores would implement it stateside. And I hope bringing our own bags becomes the norm!

Yes, that's because Aldi is German.

It is common in large cities where people shop in smaller supermarkets in city centers

@@s.p.8803 Yeah that’s what I was thinking.

I have a cotton grocery bag from King Soopers in Boulder CO. It was acquired in about 1985. Made to last! It was optional though.

Those both work :)