“Pick up your cheapest groceries from the streets here!” can we read on the Auchan mini-market which opened on November 17 in rue Léon Blum Montpellier. The slogan tickles Raphaël Pignol, manager of the Les Vins d’Antigone boutique just in front of the new brand. “It is unfair competition. It is scandalous. They have perhaps more attractive prices than us even if it is not the same quality. It is estimated that they will brew a certain population and perhaps more of clients that we “ worries the wine merchant who has been running his business for five years. Daniel Venzal from the restaurant La Famille is more positive. He is delighted to see activity in this room which had been empty for two years: “It’s good to have the place occupied by a sign, that it drains the population and that it is useful for some people.”
“We are really a convenience store and they are only in the name” – Isabella Deelen, manager of Comptoir des Olives
Isabella Deelen, manager for nine years of the Comptoir des Olives opposite Auchan, is not against her installation. On the other hand, she was surprised that no one comes to say hello to local traders. “When you are a new neighbor, you come and introduce yourself. The first thing the Auchan group did was put up a slogan that shocked us a little. I would have preferred paying us a little glass of Beaujolais Nouveau and ‘they present themselves” Isabella Deelen explains.
Some curious customers for the moment
For the moment, the sign in rue Léon Blum attracts only a few curious people. Like Marie-Paule, 78 years old. She lives a stone’s throw from the Halles Jacques Coeur where she goes to do her shopping: “It’s good quality so I’m very happy. But it’s a bit more expensive so I’ll take a walk to finish filling my cart.” This Auchan Piéton is one of the 300 that the group wants to install in France in 2021. You can do your basic shopping there. But above all to recover on foot, in click and collect, its races reserved online.
– Morgane Guiomard