The return of the neighborhood grocery store?
Many Americans imagine that Europeans shop for groceries the old-fashioned way: butchers, bakers, open-air markets. In reality, European “hypermarkets” are more sprawling and all-encompassing than most American supermarkets, and these monstrous stores have progressively eliminated thousands of small food shops.
Enter a new concept: the épicerie conviviale, or friendly grocery store, which serves not only as a food retail outlet but also as a neighborhood gathering place. According to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, Belgium’s first “épicerie conviviale” opened on March 25th in Liège. The article recounts the story of Pierreuse, a neighborhood in the city, which boasted twenty food shops fifty years ago. The last of its eleven grocery stores, “Dju Dju”, shut down in 2002, leaving only a bakery to feed the local population.
A group of five residents has reopened “Dju Dju” as a cooperative. The members plan to sell groceries at a reasonable price, and offer a meeting place for neighbors since all of the local cafés have closed as well.
Europeans are starting to think more about the consequences of spending their entire food budget at huge hypermarkets. Yet stagnating salaries and skyrocketing real estate costs make it difficult for many families to patronize smaller shops. Initiatives like Dju Dju, if successful, could open the way to a new and welcome form of food retailing in Europe.
Hello, I found Ms. Carlson’s comments about the return of the small grocery store of interest. I live in Washington state in the USA and the supermarkets have really all but obliterated the small grocery store. When we visited France we were truly shocked at the size of the “hypermarkets” and it is interesting that there too there is the problem of the demise of the delightful small stores.
One hardly knows where this will end as WalMart is taking over with its superstores that will make our regular supermarkets look like small grocery stores!! I wish Belgium well with their “épicerie conviviale”. This sounds much more charming than Starbuck’s in our local large Safeway store! I think there is one small table though–maybe it’s a start.