AIBU to ask why French high streets seem to thrive?

It's like "oh the French only eat freshly made meals assembled from quality ingredients and never touch fast.food.

Meanwhile every French city is filled with places that sell French Tacos and branches of Tasty Crousty.

Free parking. Every little French town I visited had plenty of places to park for free. It completely changes people’s mindsets. I really, really resent the faff and expense of paying to park in little towns in the U.K. at an exorbitant price so the parking revenue can go to the local council to help make up for their totally inadequate money management 😡

Of course, the out of town supermarkets have free parking so many people go there, further reducing the number of cars using the town car park - so the idiot council puts the price up again. Parking charges have killed our town centre.

It's like "oh the French only eat freshly made meals assembled from quality ingredients and never touch fast.food

And all French women are slim and sophisticated and stylish ...

She clearly means a "retail business park" aka "out of town shopping" 🙄

French high streets have been in decline for years, and in response the government launched regeneration programs.

Economically, the UK has a larger economy, but France has higher productivity, stronger growth, and, outside of housing, greater private investment.

This is a decent overview:

www.cer.eu/publications/archive/policy-brief/2024/french-lessons-britains-economy

You should read the French expat facebook pages!! Absolutely stuffed full of very unrealistic Americans most of whom have an incredibly romanticised idea of France and think they can buy enormous fully renovated places with tons of facilities in convenient well connected areas with lots of other Americans or Brits for company - for absolute peanuts - they think it’s all cheap 3 course lunches and cute little shops at reasonable prices and then moan like mad they can’t get a tradesman with a day for love nor money at any price or take away deliveries etc - I think many are used to the fact that having money totally takes away any inconveniences and France and French mentality just doesn’t work like that in most places .

Similar in UK and I would add in often have high student populations

Look up the stats though. They do eat less ultra processed foods than the Uk and some other European countries.

And presumably the leisure facilities are allowed to open. For some reason, shop workers have to have Sunday time off. But not if you eg work in a shop at a theme park.

As for shopping only being a leisure pursuit in the US or USA, go to Rotterdam on a Sunday and tell me the people there don't like shopping!

Also, French people are less obese than British

The Dutch have much better public transport and (it's a stereotype but a true stereotype) a cycle everywhere culture. Most cities, towns, villages are constructed with pedestrians/cyclists in mind first and cars afterwards. If you are cycling or walking short distances you are going to your local shop or high street. If you are getting the bus/tram you are going to the in-town shopping centre. Whereas if the only way to get about easily is by car you might as well drive all the way to the giant Supermarket or out of town. Or just order it online. So local shops closed down so people use cars even more. It's a vicious cycle that affects the UK more because it's less walkable. Plus the Dutch spend a lot on different initiatives to help the high street/area feels alive through the year IME

The Dutch local shops situation is better than the UKs. And the UKs is better than Americas. It's not a coincidence that also mirrors the facilities for non-car drivers in each country. The Netherlands isn't a utopia and I think internet shopping has affected shops there to. But not to the same extent.

That supports my point above that it's about car use. Some students have cars but they are much less likely to and less likely to be driving everywhere than other demographics. So they use local shops more. You can't force people not to drive and to walk/take public transport to local shops. But making it as easy as possible would help.

What? So the Cambridge that is synonymous with cycling, 1in 3 residents cycle to work in Cambridge, it's one of the healthiest cities in the country! What an odd example.

Tax. Business rates in the UK are exceptionally high. Prohibitively so for small independent entrepreneurs to risk opening a shop. The UK raises more tax revenue through commercial property taxes than any other major economy. The French equivalent of- CFE (Cotisation Foncière des Entreprises) is far more moderate and considers business turnover, making it possible for smaller businesses to afford premises.

Yes, French people are 'less obese' than the Italians, the Spanish, the Germans, the Dutch, the Swedish....

At a guess it's where she lives 🤷
You just seemed confused by it being called a "business park". Surely it was obvious what she meant.

Well my parents live in SW France. The town centre has been absolutely devastated by the out of town supermarkets and retail parks. Yes there's a little bakery and a grocery shop and a couple of tourist bits but nothing like the town it was when they first moved there 30 years ago. My parents buy loads on Amazon because it's convenient. Yes they go to the weekly market too for veg, but it's far from being an idyllic thriving town. The local mayor has tried very hard to regenerate the town including bringing in loads of migrants as part of a wider scheme but none of it has really helped much unfortunately. No one has any money for independent shops so they all go to Lidl and Aldi in the out of town retail parks.

Genuine curiosity here ....
Does France have more SAHMs/Housewives that can go shopping in the daytime? Compared to the UK I mean.
The main reason UK markets or independent bakeries/butchers etc have virtually died out is because they only open during the time of day the majority of people are at work.
A typical market in a "market town" in the UK is packing up it's stalls at 2pm.
The independent shops start closing at 5 ish.
People don't use them because they are at work. They use Tesco etc because they are open until 10 pm !

I wasn't confused, I was being sarcastic and was questioning the genuine nature of the post when naming one of the healthiest cities in the country as an example of excessive car travel, it makes zero sense!

Oh ok.
I personally don't know Cambridge as a city but I expect the bike riding folks are more likely to be living/working in the city centre (or are students).
If you live on a average edge of town housing estate with 2 or 3 kids then you won't be jumping on your bike to cycle into the city centre to do a food shop.
You'll stick the kids in your car and drive to the out of town shops.
(you also said "what groceries can you buy at a business park" - surely you know what she meant)

I was referring to the stereotype expressed of French people cycling and British people driving everywhere (I actually doubt there's any difference on an average, daily level).

I feel Cambridge demonstrates that it's only that a lot of Britain doesn't have a critical mass of cyclists: if the culture and infrastructure were there, they'd appear.

And no I don't live in Cambridge nor do I cycle. But maybe I would if I didn't feel I was taking my life in my hands...

Balls. You missed out income tax on business owners and URSSAF payments. CFE is a miniscule percentage of what a business gets taxed

I am always curious how those that cycle can fit a weeks worth of shopping for a typical family of 2.4 plus pets on a bike 😂

Similarities:

• Plenty of out of town shopping centres/retail parks
• self service checkouts in bigger shops
• deserted high streets in many towns

Differences

• not much Sunday trading, and even shops that are open shut at noon
• shops generally stay open until 19h ou 20h
• smaller shops usually shut between 12h and 14h
• parking is usually free or reasonably priced (not including bigger cities here, but most have top notch cheap if not free public transport)

With regards to obesity people are definitely getting bigger but nowhere near what I've seen in England. I've been teaching in a middle school for a long time and I've only ever had 2 obese pupils. Last year I didnt even have any that were visibly overweight.

Some people eat well, others don't. We don't have as many BOGOF etc. offers although with club cards it does seem to be heading more and more that way.

Not sure about the percentage of SAHM, public childcare is pretty cheap and school start at 3yo so a lot of woman are able to go back to work pretty quickly.