Best time to go shopping in France

UNLESS you enjoy driving round the carpark looking for a free space and battling trollies and crowds in the aisles before queuing for the till, don’t go to a supermarket in France between 10am and 11am or 3pm and 5pm on a Saturday.

Those are the busiest shopping hours on the busiest shopping day, according to France’s national statistics organisation, INSEE, in a newly published study that compares 35 years of shopping and lifestyle trends from 1974.

The study found that a Saturday shopping run took an average of 88 minutes in 2010, compared to 68 minutes in 1974. On average, consumers spent 23 minutes per day, or two hours and 41 minutes per week at the shops - amounting to 11% of time spent on household activities.

Some of the extra shopping time can be put down to a rise in the use of cars. Twenty-first century shoppers headed store-wards in their cars 65% of the time, compared to 38% in 1974, as the number of out-of-town supermarkets and shopping areas increased. The length of time spent driving to the shops tripled between 1974 and 2010, with people reserving on-foot dashes to the store for trips that take less than 10 minutes.

The best time for crowd-free shopping appears to be after 8pm, according to the research. Just 0.3% of shoppers head to supermarkets in the final hour before closing it found, up from 0.1% in 1974, despite the general increase in opening hours for stores across France.

Longer hours mean that what was traditionally the busiest shopping hour of around 10.35am has been losing popularity, as consumers make more use of their lunch hours to pick up groceries. INSEE said that the rise in fast food outlets since 1974 has meant people have more time to dash to the superstore during lunch breaks.

Men are more involved with shopping than they were, the research found. The difference in time women spend shopping compared to men has halved since 1974.

Men also spend more time doing household chores. The study found that they spend an average of two hours and 36 minutes on daily domestic tasks like cooking, cleaning and looking after children. But they still trail way behind women, who spend four hours and seven minutes doing the same thing. The gap, however, is narrowing, the statistics office figures reveal. Men’s domestic tasks time has risen 33 minutes, while women’s has fallen an hour and 25 minutes.

The study also reveals that parents are more likely to regard the weekly shop as a stressful chore. A total 25% do not look forward to the weekly trip to the supermarket - twice as many as in 1986.

Despite parents’ negative view, overall, 30% of people find shopping ‘enjoyable’. Of those, retirees, homemakers, single people and childless couples are more likely to regard shopping as a pleasure. Nearly half (46%) of retired people say they look forward to going shopping, compared to 39% of homemakers, 38% of childless couples and 33% of single people.

Photo: Luc Legay