French shopkeepers slam supermarket plan

Paris: France's renowned butchers, bakers and grocers say they are being threatened by a new law that makes it easier for large supermarkets to open anywhere.

Tourists have long admired the abundance of the boucher, boulanger and epicier in France - a testament to how the country has successfully preserved community life and art de vivre - the art of living.

Until now, petits commercants - or small shop owners - have been protected by a 1996 law that makes it difficult for supermarkets to open stores bigger than 3,250 sq ft.

However, this limit would be all but scrapped as part of a new law on "modernising the economy'' tabled last week and to be debated in parliament this month.

Supermarket chains have welcomed the move. However, Philippe Pilliot, the secretary general of the French greengrocer's federation, said the effects could be devastating for small businesses. "A village grocer can only survive if it serves a radius of between 5 to 10km or 2-3,000 people,'' he said. "It will simply die out if a supermarket opens in that zone.

"Already shopkeepers have to start work earlier and earlier to make ends meet and end later and later. How will they cope now?''

Pilliot, who represents 28,500 greengrocers, went to the French National Assembly on Monday to lobby to have the measure removed. The aim of the law - President Nicolas Sarkozy's second major economic reform since taking office - is to boost economic growth by 0.3 per cent annually and create 50,000 jobs in five years by making it easier to set up businesses.

It also aims to increase competition. A recent consumer group survey found that supermarket prices in France are 5 per cent higher on average than elsewhere in Europe, because individual stores enjoy quasi-monopoly status in many parts of the country.

The new law would allow supermarkets of up to 10,500 sq ft to open anywhere they wanted. "We want more businesses and more competition for lower prices,'' said Christine Lagarde, the finance minister.

She argued that the current rules have both failed to protect small shopkeepers and, at the same time, forced the public to pay artificially high prices. Butchers are unhappy about the measure but hope their customers will remain loyal.

Domique Unger, secretary general of France's butchers, charcutiers and caterers, said: "After the Second World War, there were 40,000 butchers in France. The first supermarket wave killed off half of them. But since the mad cow scandal in Britain, the French are very careful about the quality and traceability of their meat.

"The damage from supermarkets has already been done, we don't believe they will take any more market share.''

However, Unger had harsh words for Sarkozy, who he said "clearly never goes shopping".

"He doesn't give a damn about small businesses, he only cares for bourgeois big industry.''

Such open hostility to the President was reflected in a recent poll that showed his approval ratings hit a record low in April.

The poll for L'Express showed 64 per cent had a negative opinion of Sarkozy a year after he took power - the worst result for a president since the magazine began its surveys in 1981. Sarkozy used prime time television last week to explain his reforms and apologise for past mistakes.