Sabbatical in Geneva - Shopping

  OK, I'm a shopper and happily admit it. When others are looking at the Roman ruins or ancient churches, I'm checking out the stuff for sale. Geneva, near the old town area and down the hill from the largest church that overlooks the city, the Cathedral du Saint Pierre, is the main shopping area of the city complete with an Apple store, multiple jewelry stores, and every big name apparel store you can name. About every third store in Geneva is a watch store of some description selling the finest watches in the world, many of which are made here. But those places are expensive and not so different from London or New York. I'm wanting to talk about the more mundane places to shop where the locals go and my experiences there. 

  Every Saturday, our town of Ferney-Voltaire in France has a Saturday morning market that takes over the central village. It goes up the Main Rue which is a cobblestone street lined with outdoor restaurants and up and down the Rue de Voltaire that crosses it. My sister-in-law pointed out that many towns have markets, however, the one in Ferney is a look into the past where people bought their food at the market which is open once or twice a week and rotates from town to town. Ours apparently is exceptional for it's size possibly due to the proximity to Geneva. From the main crossroad and going three or four blocks in two directions, the Ferney market sells food. It's not like the grocery store. The food is often recently picked, caught, or slaughtered, very fresh, and in the open in crates, boxes, and bowls. On display are: fresh (and sometimes live) fish, crabs, oysters, mussels, eel, shrimp, etc. on ice taking up one block; multiple vegetable dealers selling local vegetables and fruits; olive vendors with tables of olives and fresh squeezed olive oil; butchers with their wares either packaged, in coolers, or hanging; sausage makers; cheese makers with stacks of various cheeses; wine makers from the region offering taste of their wines; bread and pastry makers with tables of fresh baked baguettes and croissants; and spice dealers with bowls of fresh spices. When business is slow, the vendors cut open their wares and offer free samples while some openly hawk their foods. Most however are too busy weighing and wrapping foods and taking money. On the other two streets are multiple dealers of all kinds of clothing and other items such as oriental rugs and hand made shoes and toys. It is a true bizarre and it's packed with people buying their clothing or weekly foods. The locals bring roll behind carts that they stuff with food for the week. Even though we have several good grocery stores, the ability to buy fresh in the portion desired and often at a better price is irresistible. It's open from early Saturday morning until about 1:00 pm and often vendors sell out. On Wednesday morning a few of the vendors are back but nothing like the Saturday morning market. Last week, we had a two day Potter's market in addition to the regular Saturday market and the central village was blocked off all weekend. We're hooked and regulars. 

  The regular stores are open from around 9:30 or 10:00 am until noon and then they all close until 2:00 pm for lunch and open again until 6:00 pm generally with very few open beyond 6:30 pm and everything is closed on Sunday. We needed some batteries on a Saturday night after 6:00 and found we were just out of luck until Monday. As American's we keep forgetting about the hours and get out to go the store before 2:00 pm or after 6:00 pm and realize we wasted a trip. It's really hard when you work full time because it's difficult to schedule in shopping or haircuts during the week and as expected on Saturday, things are mobbed. So, we end up shopping less and spending more time between noon and two in restaurants having long lunches or coffee. As an aside, I love the coffee here. It is generally expresso based and either Cafe (a small cup of expresso with a slice of chocolate on the side), Cafe au Lait (an expresso put in a regular cup with streamed milk), or Cappachino (an expresso in a regular cup with frothed milk and often unsweetened chocolate on top). I never see people get more than one cup and you sit and savor the experience and your one cup. There is a Starbucks presence in Geneva and other cities and they do a brisk business and taste the same as home except a good deal more expensive. I'll take the local places. 

  Having a large presence in France is the Carrefour market which I've mentioned before since we have two in Ferney and are much like a WalMart. They actually are the #2 retail store in the world behind WalMart and apparently are all over Europe and Asia. They offer the usual WalMart experience of few people to help you and massive isles filled with mostly groceries but also electronics, school supplies, and clothing. There are differences however. They don't provide bags for your goods and you have to use coins to get a shopping cart. The shopping carts are outside with each cart secured to the next with a chain.  You insert either a Euro or half a Euro into a slot on the cart and it frees it from the chain so you can use the cart. When you are done, you take it back to the other carts and secure the chair which pops out your coin. It's not a bad system for keeping the carts in the right place. Aggravating though if you don't have coins. More aggravating is the lack of bags. They have bags but you have to purchase them and they are sturdy reinforced plastic bags with handles that are expensive. We keep going to the grocery and then realize we forgot our bags and have to purchase new ones. 

  Today - a Saturday, I popped into a giant Carrefour to pick up some milk and a few other things. I picked up a carry around plastic basket and got my items in three times the time it would take me back home because I don't know where anything is located. I got up to the checkout and it was and always is packed with people backed up halfway down aisles waiting to check out. I'm waiting when a fellow starts carrying on with me in French and pointing down the way. I realize he is pointing to a self-checkout area where people with hand baskets can check out so I Merci him and go down. When a spot opens up, I begin taking my stuff from the carry around basket and haul it to the scanner because they won't let you carry your basket in the checkout area. Although there is no one is in the store to help you find things, there always are basket police to be sure you don't violate the basket rule. Once my stuff is situated to check out, I realize that I don't have a bag so I run over to the bags and get the cheapest looking plastic one I see. The instructions on the check out are in French which I don't understand so I begin to push things on the screen and the buzzer goes off and the circulating red light at the top begins to spin. After standing there an eternity, a girl comes over and turns off the buzzer and light and shows me how to scan my items and how to get instructions in English. Nice. The first question is if I have my own bag and I answer yes then realize they mean paid for bag. I can't get the machine to back up and the light starts going off again. Here comes the same girl. She turns off the light and leaves. I begin scanning my items and putting them into my bag. About every forth item freezes the scanner and starts up the red light. She makes about three more trips and I notice the line has gotten long but I'm afraid to make eye contact with anyone in the line since I'm taking so long. I finally get completed, use my saver card, and pay with my credit card which takes another trip and another flashing light episode. I go to leave and my unpaid for bag set off a different alarm and the gates wouldn't open. The same girl glad to be rid of me, opened the gate and I was happy to escape with my few expensive items and stolen plastic bag. A typical shopping experience for me at the Carrefour. I believe I can wait until next Saturday's market to buy anything else.