Neighborhood businesses

As in most Parisian neighborhoods, Batignolles has many of the essentials: small grocers, bakeries, and cafés. I walked past this produce store, open for business early Saturday morning. Next door, on the corner, was a bakery and pastry shop which also had a few tables inside for coffee.

Look at all that produce! The store is called "Au Verger des Batignolles" (The Batignolles Orchard).

One thing I didn't photograph was the proliferation of neighborhood groceries that are part of the large national chains of super- and hyper-markets. Examples of these are Monop' (Monoprix), Carrefour City and Carrefour Market (Carrefour), U Express (Super U), Intermarché Express (Intermarché). There are others like Franprix and Casino which are also part of large conglomerates. There's a lot of overlap; it wouldn't surprise me to find out that they're all owned by the same corporation (I'm only half kidding).

These shiny new stores are colorful and inviting. Back in the early '80s, I remember the neighborhood store chains like Prisunic, Uniprix, and Félx Potin, but they're mostly gone now. Aside from the big chains, there are also probably hundreds of small, independently owned and operated grocers in the city.