Some thoughts on doing business in France
When I arrived in the French port town of Antibes in 2001, I always seemed to find myself in front of Maison Robert supermarket at the precise moment that they pulled down the metal roller door for lunch. Lunch goes for ages in this part of the world. It involves wine and several courses, which sounds very civilised for those having it, but distinctly less so for the person standing hungry in front of the supermarket, wanting to buy their own lunch.
Things have changed here though. A bit. Supermarkets are now open all day, and one Antibes chain is even open all day on Sunday, quelle chance! The post office no longer closes its doors at mealtimes, and if you happen to be dying you might even find a pharmacy open on a Sunday, somewhere on Cap d’Antibes camouflaged behind a gate and a big tree. Competition is definitely stronger, multinationals are getting their way and pushing opening times to match other countries. But let’s face it, it’s still pretty rubbish. This is a country where most businesses still pull the grate closed at lunchtime, which may go for any number of hours between the vague time of 12 and 3.
The French, on the whole, don’t appear very interested in making money. Many cafes are shut on Sundays, despite it being a popular day for eating out. Most boutiques close too, missing out on the crowds of wandering tourists who have little else to do than spend their money, walk annoyingly slowly and drip icecream all over the cobblestones. Many small (and even big) busineses don’t yet have websites, and when you do find a website, it was often last updated when I was a young lass standing hungrily in front of Maison Robert.
The expression ‘making hay while the sun shines’ doesn’t seem to translate well here, with many restaurants closing in the final days of summer, even if the weather is scorching hot and there’s still many tens of thousands of euros to be made throughout a warm October. You also get used to hearing ‘Ce n’est pas possible’ a lot. For anyone unnacustomed to this French phrase, this doesn’t always mean ‘it’s not possible’. Often it actually just means ‘I am not going to do it for you’. It can also mean ‘While I appreciate that what you ask for is logical, I am not going to do it for you because no-one has ever asked me to do it before, and if I start saying yes to new things, then all hell may break loose and my job may get more difficult. So, non, I cannot leave the head of whipped cream off the top of your dessert. You don’t know what comes next, it might be revolution. We had one of those once, you know, that was all about knocking the heads off things too. I’m sure that started with cream.’
So yes, when it comes to living and working here in France, there are some strange customs to contend with, and it’s quite reasonable to say that for the French, other things often come before profit. A sentiment which, as long as I’m not standing outside a closed shop, I really appreciate the value of. Not opening on Sundays is because that’s the traditional day for family, and rest. Who am I to argue with that? Not opening the supermarket past 8pm? Not the end of the world, surely. It’s often frustrating, but this approach has its own value. That value is just not strictly a monetary one.
Doing business in France: the advantages
As for those doing business here themselves? Well, in other’s failures to be competitive you can probably find your own business’ strengths. If you open at lunchtime and have a great website, then you are already ahead of the pack. You’ll probably make more money than them with this mindset, but when you see the locals out for their three hour lunches, chatting and drinking rose in the summer sunshine, you may sometimes wonder if ‘going to lunch’ isn’t the better option. Image credits: *Peter Purves Smith ‘The French Cafe’, 1935 via Wikimedia Commons *Floris Cleasz van Dyck via Wikimedia Commons.
