AIBU to ask why French high streets seem to thrive?

This reminds me so much of the time I spent living and travelling in France 😂 I remember once I was travelling to an airport by train on a Sunday and I was practically in tears because I couldn’t find ANYWHERE open for food. I had to do an hour round trip to a carrefour that was open for a couple of hours - and that was in a city! If you are used to UK convenience France is a big culture shock I think, it’s not bad but I certainly found it a lot more hassle to do certain stuff that is easy in the UK. Opening a bank account - omg that was like a week’s worth of effort.

I get why people complain about the UK because it’s easy to whinge about somewhere you take for granted but, much as I love visiting France, living there gave me a new appreciation for the UK.

Im sure that’s true hut it’s not just grocers and bakers doing well - there are loads of nice shops quite often. British people love independent shops, so I think behaviour only goes someway to explain the difference. There
must be tax incentives too.

French businesses are more highly taxed than in the UK. VAT thresholds are lower and empoyment taxes are far higher

Of course there's online shopping in France, what an idiot!

In Paris it's a reason that Brits would hate. Apartements are small with limited storage so you buy small packets and shop frequently on foot. Plus why would anyone eat stale food which means you shop multiple times per week and bread at least every day, often twice per day.

This only works in a 15 minutes city which is the work of the devil according to mumsnet and might mean you can't drive a giant car everywhere.

Just to mention my post was about towns and not villages. I am sure it is challenging for businesses in France but the town centres themselves - in some quite normal areas - seem to have lots of businesses that are not vape shops, Turkish barbers or charity shops.
One thing we definitely do better though - bar opening hours - is public toilets
The public toilets I visited, when I could find one, were off the scale levels of disgusting, far beyond even the grimmest loos I’ve encountered in the UK.

I’ve been on lots of holidays in France and haven’t noticed the busy high streets except for in large towns and cities. Throughout villages and any more rural areas there seems to be nothing at all except pharmacies and bread shops.

no Amazon in France

Yes they have Netto but lots of people still like to shop in the traditional way (at small shops and markets etc). I lived in Italy for a long time and it’s quite similar (we were near the border with France)

I googled what supermarket chains they have in France (out of curiosity).
There's a discount one called Netto that has about 300 branches.
Looking at their website it looks similar to retailer like Farm Foods.

Partly because the French like to buy quality products that are in season so don’t buy rubbish from bigger shops that are out of town like the British do. Farm foods would not be popular.

This reminds me so much of the time I spent living and travelling in France 😂 I remember once I was travelling to an airport by train on a Sunday and I was practically in tears because I couldn’t find ANYWHERE open for food. I had to do an hour round trip to a carrefour that was open for a couple of hours - and that was in a city! If you are used to UK convenience France is a big culture shock I think, it’s not bad but I certainly found it a lot more hassle to do certain stuff that is easy in the UK. Opening a bank account - omg that was like a week’s worth of effort.

I get why people complain about the UK because it’s easy to whinge about somewhere you take for granted but, much as I love visiting France, living there gave me a new appreciation for the UK.

I’ve been on lots of holidays in France and haven’t noticed the busy high streets except for in large towns and cities. Throughout villages and any more rural areas there seems to be nothing at all except pharmacies and bread shops.

I have lived in France for 15 years - the number of times I have sworn loudly when I have turned up somewhere and found it closed! Random holidays (yes, I could look at the calendar), not open until 09h30, closed early evening, never on a Sunday (but of course I know that), closed for two weeks holiday (I had to drive to 3 pharmacies in the middle of August - one hadn't opened yet - it was 9h30 already - and one was on holiday for two weeks), stock taking - what national chain closes it's branches for stock taking, petrol stations regularly run out of petrol, and the amount of moaning about how hard it is to get things, just things, clothes shops (outside of big cities - we do LOVE going to big cities to shop), and no... business costs are not lower and red tape is a huge barrier, I do not know how businesses in France get up and running or how they survive, but somehow they do - getting a meal outside of regular meal times is next to impossible, going to a shop during meal times - the same - apart from supermarkets, and there are plenty of supermarkets. Our local garage has recently changed their hours to 4 days a week, because they have enough work in four days (and a month off in August) to keep them going, but there are very few garages locally, it is very hard to book your car in for work and we have been waiting 2 months for parts to fix the air conditioning in our car - not amusing in this heat. As for tradespeople - finding an electrician, plumber, tiler.. very difficult. and I am always amazed at how cheap things are in England... life is expensive here.

I often find it funny how sacred lunch times are here - a friend and I went to a spa in the mountains, it was practically empty - she pointed out to me that no self respecting French person would be in a spa, over lunch time. And the motorways are a joy to drive on between 12 and 2 and of course, on Sundays, trucks are not permitted... and while I am on the topic of motorways, I know the English love a good moan about the motorway traffic on bank holidays, but the French take this to a new level.. most of the year, most days of the week, you can drive for hours and hours in really light traffic (Paris excluded - the phrase is all roads lead to Rome, in France, all roads and train lines lead to Paris) - but on certain days of the year - July and August holidays, everyone sets out on a Saturday... and in some areas, the routes to the ski resorts are the same... INSANE - in fact I saw a children's book recently, about going on holiday in the mountains - and one of the pages was about the queues at the toll booths.

But no.. I have no idea how these little shops, selling niche things and never seem to have any customers, survive in France. The concept of a charity shop barely exists - though friperie (secondhand for profit) shops are becoming more popular. I live in a village of 1,000 people - we have nothing. not even a bakery, but a fairly interesting Wednesday afternoon market in the car park of the sports centre. Next village along has 2,000 people, they had a shop a bit like an English corner shop - that has closed. They have a thriving pharmacy, a bakery, and three restaurants - one only opens at lunch time, Monday to Thursday. Recently, the town council provided space for a bike shop, a book shop (never has any customers) and a co working space, in an attempt to breathe life into the village.