When Americans think about big box stores, they think about Walmart.
Outside of North America, Carrefour is a better Walmart.
More stuff - by a lot.
Better stuff - by a lot.
If you need something,
And you need it now,
And it is not something exotic like a Renaissance lute,
Carrefour probably has it.
What they got will be good enough to take care of your problem.
* * *
Practical example.
Wife and I are having a miserable travel day.
We had to get up too early and move vast amounts of heavy luggage an ungodly distance to get to our car.
It is late morning ...
We are exhausted ...
We have a huge amount of driving in front of us.
We have had neither breakfast nor coffee ...
And Samuel C. needs a bathroom very badly.
We are driving through Granada
Which like most European cities,
Is totally totally congested.
Sure, there are all sorts of wonderful cafes to stop at.
Good luck finding parking to get to those cafes.
And trust me,
Street parking is even harder to find when you are very very distracted.
* * *
Then like an oasis in the desert arises Carrefour.
It has a large parking lot with plenty of vacant spaces.
It has the obvious indoor plumbing advantages.
But better yet,
It has a sit-down cafe with a
good barrista,
good sandwiches,
good pastries and
good coffee.
Most cafes get their bread, sandwich fixings and pastries from an institutional provider.
Carrefour has all that stuff right on their own shelves,
And the raw materials are good enough for them to sell to their retail consumers.
Our coffee was excellent.
Our sandwiches were excellent.
We had a nice place to sit down and relax -
Which was much appreciated after the rough start to our day.
If we hadn't had to be far away by a particular time ...
I could have easily done my gift shopping for my friends back home.
I would have been paying real people prices and not tourist prices.
Plus, I would have been getting presents and products that people really use.
* * *
Don't underestimate Carrefour.
You need it?
They got it. read more
