Opening the earliest of the grocery stores near my hotel, this location of Carrefour City was my first retail stop in Paris. It provided reasonable prices for some essential food that became my snacking items between meal outings.
The Carrefour Group is a French multi-national retailer, founded in 1960 as a supermarket chain. It later created the concept of a 'hypermarket' in Europe, combining a grocery store with a department store. It now has different formats of stores, based on size, convenience, and location. The 'City' concept is marketed towards urban dwellers who want quick, close-by food availability.
I was jetlagged and couldn't sleep, so walked over to this location soon after it opened at 07:00. Picked up one of my favorite snacking cheeses: Compte (4,40€ for 250g), butter (1,89€ for 125g) for spread, and two bottles of 1.5l bottled water (,23€ each). If one can't tell, certain basic 'must-have' food item prices are controlled (either through regulation or competition). One thing they did not have any were baguettes, so had to pick that up somewhere else.
Checkout was a snap, using a credit card with no surcharge. read more