Société Française — Les Français Qui Achètent

Abstract

The consumer society is alive and well in France, as any visit to a hypermarché will show. But the French spend their money rather differently from the English, as is discussed in the first text below. Besides offering an enormous range of goods for sale, however, the consumer society does bring problems for the consumer, and the French, like the English, have consumer associations to advise them on how to protect their rights. The second text puts some of the questions which appear at the beginning of a booklet addressed to consumers. Finally, the dialogue of this chapter gives some opinions about the relative merits of shopping in the market, at the hypermarché or chez les petits commerçants.