2023-06-15 05:58:06
On June 15, 1963, a new world opened up to the French: 2,500 square meters of sales area, 12 checkouts and 540 parking spaces. Its supply is unprecedented, 15,000 references at prices 15 to 20% lower than the competition. Fresh produce, groceries, bazaar, textiles and household appliances… With the opening of its first store in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois (Essonne), Carrefour is imposing gigantism in retail. This is the birth of hypermarkets.
“In a carnival atmosphere, customers wander around, amazed”, tell Jérôme Fourquet and Raphaël Llorca (1). “They let themselves be impressed by what they see on the shelves, by the discovery of products they never imagined existed”, testifies Jean-Marc Villermet, author of Birth of the hypermarket (Armand Colin, 1991).
“The starting point for a radical change in the way of doing business”
A dazzle difficult to imagine today at a time when the hypermarket has become unavoidable. For Michel Bon, CEO of Carrefour between 1990 and 1992, “this store will have been the starting point for a radical change in the way of doing business”. And the consumer historian Jean-Claude Daumas confirms it, “the development of the hypermarket has had social consequences on French consumption”.
From now on, “we go shopping once a week and more daily”, we go there by car and as a couple: “Until the 1960s, racing was a predominantly female activity. With the hypermarket, it becomes a couple outing, driving licenses are still reserved for men,” says the historian.
The currency of the hypermarket becomes “Everything under one roof”. You can then go to a single store to do all your shopping, the corner grocery store and its few hundred products become obsolete. The French have a “a feeling of unlimited abundance and infinite choices, it’s Ali Baba’s cave”, narrates Jean-Claude Daumas.
Distribute en masse and sell at low prices
Beyond the profusion, the commitment against the expensive life is the DNA of the large distribution. It has one principle: distribute in mass and sell at low prices. This French model was invented by Édouard Leclerc, in Landerneau (Finistère) in 1951. In his new store, he sold cheaper than the competition, with a reduced margin of 11% instead of 25%. The slogan of the famous Mammoths is all found: “Mammoth crushes prices”.
This strategy is paying off. The whole of the middle class is conquered, and the content of the plates will be modified. “Mass distribution, through its presence throughout the country, is gradually bringing cooked and prepared meals from the agri-food industry into all homes”, write Jérôme Fourquet and Raphaël Llorca.
“It is in fact on the shelves of supermarkets that a whole series of iconic brands are offered, the purchase and consumption of which attest to everyone that you are indeed part of the majority group. Frequenting these signs and being able to afford certain emblematic brands draws the line of demarcation which separates you from the poor”, decipher the two analysts.
“A splitting of the middle classes”
“Today, we are witnessing a split in the middle classes, observes Jean-Claude Daumas. The lower middle classes are gripped by rising prices in difficult times. They no longer go to the hypermarket, where the temptation is too strong, and prefer to go to Aldi or Lidl with the impression of better controlling their consumption. » As for the upper middle classes, they are also returning to more expensive stores in the city center.
However, despite competition from hard discount, convenience stores, specialized supermarkets, such as Darty, or more recently from e-commerce, the “hypermarkets” record substantial turnover: 48 billion euros for Leclerc, 38 billion for Carrefour.
However, the sustainability of this model does not seem obvious to François Durovray, president of the departmental council of Essonne, the department with the largest commercial surface in France. “The Carrefour de Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois bears witness to an era and at the same time it is a model that must be reinvented: it questions us about ecological issues and its territorial dimension. Is it appropriate to continue to build businesses outside the city centers? », he wonders.
The supermarket footprint
Today, 10,000 supermarkets and 2,000 hypermarkets mesh the French territory. A concentration that the president of the Essonne departmental council considers outdated. For him, it is necessary “inventing a new model, in the city centre”. Especially since, since the rise of telework, the suburban areas of Essonne come back to life during the week.
“Reconnecting to the territory” is, according to François Durovray, a concern shared by those responsible for large retailers. But even today, according to Ifop figures, nearly seven out of ten French people make their daily purchases in a supermarket as a priority, and only 8% of them go to small local shops to do their main shopping. .
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