AIBU to ask why French high streets seem to thrive?

Needmorelego

I can explain how I do it if you really want to know

cambridge traffic is a fucking nightmare to be fair.

yes, many people do cycle around but most people do the food shop by car at one of the big supermarkets that are out of town.

there’s loads - big Sainsbury’s at coldhams common roundabout, Tesco on Newmarket Road, Asda at the beehive centre, etc. many people who live in Cambridge very rarely go into the historic centre - that’s left to students and tourists. Much of the employment is in the science park to the north or addenvrookes/babraham biotech park to the south both of which now have their own train stations.

Oh and our local town is currently building a pedestrian and cycling bridge across the river and it is by far the most unpopular thing the mairie have ever done by a long stretch 😅

Supermarkets don't sell tobacco, vapes or medecines so you have a tobacconist and pharmacy. They also dont sell a little of bread apart from baguettes so you also have boulangeries and patisserie. The French like to take their time food shopping, its an art not like in UK where we shove everything in a trolley not caring where it came from.

To be fair some people who cycle in Cambridge have panniers which will take a fair bit of shopping (I used to go the weekly shop by bike before we had a car) and you can get cargo bikes.

https://uk.ortlieb.com/collections/panniers-and-bike-bags

These bikes are also quite common in Cambridge and kids and stuff can go in the front.

https://www.babboe.co.uk/

Explain what?
Which of my comments are you referring too?

That looks like it would fit one 9 pack of loo roll and 3 tins of cat food 😂😂

Parking charges have killed our town centre

we had free parking in the town I live - population around 60,000

you could never park anywhere as the "workers" both office and retails parked in the free spaces and non where left
they now charge for parking and you can easily get a space - pay 50p for 30 minutes and there are plenty of spaces. Shops still closing but at night all the restaurants and bars are full, the streets are more crowded than in the daytime

sorry it was about the shopping and moving things by bike

You might be surprised!

panniers on both sides plus a plastic bag one on each side of the handlebars (for balance obvs) got my weekly shopping home.

Oh ok 🙂
I would be interested to know.
I don't drive and before I discovered home delivery (best thing ever) I could only buy what I could carry and fit in my pull along trolley.
It was never a weeks worth so I had to shop several times a week.
I used to buy most of my cleaning/toiletries products from Poundland (most have closed down now - it's annoying because I bought loads there) and the pull along trolley would almost be full within seconds if I bought a 9 pack of loo roll. I usually ended up with a full trolley plus two shopping bags.
And that was just the non food stuff.
So one shopping trip just for household products.
I'd have to do a least another two for food.

that cargo bike is bigger than a boot on a Peugeot or VW up

I do home delivery for the bulky items - usually stock up at xmas as that s when they are cheap

but a monthly order from any of the supermarkets offering free delivery slots for all the store cupboard foods and then shop for weekly items

I can though pack in two panniers and a rack bag and go on holiday for three weeks abroad.

Ahhhh.....if you are doing home delivery for bulky stuff you aren't getting a weeks worth of shopping on a bike .... that's cheating 😂😂😂😂

Because the French - and I appreciate that this is a massive generalisation and based on my observations only - appear to value individuality and small family businesses or boutiques over larger conglomerates. They also like quality over quantity which favours the independent provider.

Tbh packing for holiday the bike is about the same as a weeks shopping for 2 without home delivery. I’ve put my handbag over my shoulder and the bottle of wine in the drink cage 🙈

But you must know that Cambridge has huge traffic problems? It's healthy because it's wealthy, but would I ever live there now? No, because for several hours a day it's gridlocked.

@CarrieOakie if it's just for 2 that's very different to a family of 2 adults, couple of kids, few pets...

My neighbour had to stop driving due to illness. Well he was devastated naturally, and I got as much as I could for him when doing my own shopping. However, he enjoyed mooching around the shops himself, so eventually got himself a three wheel cycle. Well OMG it is amazing! He needed that for stability and balance. There's a massive basket on the back for "stuff". He is greeted and feted all around the area now on his big green trike.

I want one too but not yet. They are not cheap either, but cheaper than a car I suppose! I also think those bikes with the little covered carriage on the back for kids are fab. You'd get a lot of shopping in there, feck the kids!

I think there are electric versions out now, not sure, but that would be excellent. I'm future proofing for my older age, which is not that far away now!

Isn't France the home of the 'hypermarket'?

weve just said the same about Spain. I also noticed lots of independent shops: greengrocers, yabacconist, butchers etc.

The difference is customers and quality, and not just in France.

Other European countries also have thriving high streets and markets, The Netherlands, Spain, Hungary and Germany.

Customer (us) spend money in shops, they pay for quality. Thriving shops, making a profit means more thriving shops.

Instead (us) in the UK are buoyed by the cheapness of SHEIN, TEMU and the multiple online ‘fake’ websites selling copied clothing, of poor quality.
We in the UK don’t even seem to notice the tat, poor fabrics and make, dangers of chemicals or the horrid way workers are treated.

We don’t seem to be able to use any critical thinking to work out that something is wrong if an item made from a metre of fabric and flown across the world, costs less than the metre of fabric.

We don’t seem to have worked out that if we don’t shop on the high streets, there won’t be a high street, just lots of empty shops to be filled with nail bars, vape shops and barbers.

We have ourselves to blame, business owners do not run shops as a form of voluntary service to the community.

Bikes have paniers that carry a lot.
However in terms of doing one/two weeks of shopping for a family of 4 on a bike you don't. You cycle for five minutes to the shops and pick up bread, milk, groceries etc every day if need be. For a big shop you can travel by tram/bus or do what lots of people with cars do and drive. It's not that no-one ever drives in more walkable/bike able places. It's just that there's a mindset of popping to the shops for daily stuff on foot or by bike because it's so easy. Rather than doing all big shops at the big supermarket/online and then when one does visit the high street marvelling at how run down it is since the last time you were there 6 months ago.

@Persephonia1966 I can't think of anything more boring than having to pop to the shops everyday 😂
As I have said though in this thread - more people would shop (or go to cafés) on their local high street if the shops were actually open past 5.30pm.
That's the major reason why people don't - in my personal opinion.

Sorry I missed your updates. I didn't have a car at all when I lived in the Netherlands and managed fine. But it's because it's so easy to get to the shops that I never needed to do a big weekly shop for everything. To be fair that's also true for people in many cities in the UK where the shops are very close and when you look at places like that the local shopping street is normally doing fine.
I don't think it's a case of people needing to punish themselves by cycling miles along dangerous roads with an unreasonable amount of shopping bags. It's more that if town planners actually paid attention to making areas walkable/cyclable it would be easier for people to pop to the shops by bike or on foot.

@Persephonia1966 once I started doing home delivery for my big shop my life has improved so much 😂