Sure, we all need to eat but for some people, it's just a more important part of their week and time and money spent getting the ingredients they want is not considered lost time.
Don't take this the wrong way but please don't make the assumption that everyone gives food and eating the same value in life.
Of course I know how to use the scan gun, and when possible, I do use the local farms, but they aren't always open, and the never have okra (gumbo), which I can always find at Grand Frais, and often at Savoie Volailles Pernoud, and Intremarche.
I buy no meat or lettuces in France but drive once per year to Alsace for Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminer, am I allowed to comment?
Skip those Carrefours then, but if you happen to be in Gex, the butcher at Intermarche is excellent, as is the fish department. And if Savoie Volailles Pernoud was twenty minutes closer, it would likely be my only butcher and cheese shop... they know their stuff, enjoy giving samples and chatting, and do a really good job trimming and prepping the meats. If you like Grand Frais, you'll be impressed.
For Okra, try any Turkish supermarket.
I completely agree with you, 100% of our weekly meals (3 per day) are made by me. And I'm not talking about pre-cooked, frozen meals.
Cooking is completely my responsibility in our household and something I love doing
Since I consider the quality of products I find in Swiss supermarkets superior to the ones I did find in French ones near the border and the overall experience is more pleasant, I find it a waste of time to cross-border shop in order to save some francs.
Yes. I occasionally go to the Indian one in Nyon, but my neighborhood doesn’t have one close enough where a separate trip is worth it, plus Grand Frais has crawfish and sausages that can be used with the leafy celery in a good gumbo or other New Orleans food.
Is there a Carrefour in Saint Louis? Do you mean the Carrefour City in the town center?
What, the ones marked "This offer is only available online" and "This product is currently not available online"?
Aren't most places self scanning these days ?
I lived in Basel for a decade and am regularly there still
That food is important to us? Hehe yes, yes it is.
Tom, we also get giddy in Italy. We stayed in a remote home in Tuscany and even the tiny Coop there was heaven - will never forget it.
I love shopping for food in Switzerland too and Hieber in Germany.
I shop 95% in Switzerland and almost always buy Swiss meat.
However, I don't consider seeking out produce that I need an inconvenience and waste of time as on balance, eating something I really want to eat is more important.
Having said that, a three-hour round trip (on public-transport) to buy watercress wouldn't be something I'd repeat.
What I'd like here is one of the market town butchers like the ones you get in the UK with pheasants hanging outside on hooks and all manner of cuts of meat and not just the most expensive, least tasty ones that seem so popular here.
Or Indian!
The butcher you want that you just described sounds like our butchers in Intermarche and Savoie, well worth the cross border trip. Locally, there’s a British market with turkeys and geese that are frozen solid and feel like a bowling ball, and start about CHF 75 and go higher. The fresh ones are across the border and you need to ask them to remove the head and feet, and sometimes the feathers (unless you want them for some reason). And are twenty or thirty euros less.
And the French believe in having dark meat and some fat on the different cuts, rather than the almost exclusively lean cuts and various breast meat. And duck! Lots of duck. Yum.
And the varieties of cheese, and if you like English cheeses, they tend to be cheaper in France by a considerable margin (I like Stilton and the nicely packaged aged cheddars), an absolute win.
Not sad at all.
I shop occasionally in France so it doesn’t bother me too much that the cashiers are less careful there.
I have a good rapport with all the supermarket staff I see regularly here and we have a fantastic butcher who knows just how we like our meat and doesn’t trim it to within an inch of its life.
For the most part I find french supermarkets to be pretty grim places to visit, they are often dirty an untidy in my experience. Fine for an a occasional trip for the increased selection and speciality stuff, not something I’d want to be doing on a regular basis.
There is a big difference between better and a different range of produce ditto cheaper and more expensive
Or Asian.
Tom
If I had dirty markets with clumsy cashiers or less choice/variety, I certainly wouldn’t be happy. I enjoy shopping and having choices. If you’re satisfied, great.
Intermarche, Grand Frais, and the Savoie are very clean, and unlike the Carrefour and some of the Swiss markets, the fish department doesn’t stink. The only Swiss markets I’ve seen with similar variety of fish are the large Aligro and one of the Manors. I’ve yet to see a cheese department or deli counter in Switzerland that rivals these markets.
There is a big difference a different range of produce and a greater range of produce.
Standard but good tasting and tender cote de boeuf at 16 euros/kg in france with a size that is grillable, in switzerland >50 chf and only small size. For any family the savings remain huge and an inflation of 15% in france is negligible.