When did food in France get so stupidly expensive?

[citizensm1th]

you also have to remember a lot of the french grow their own veg

so its mainly townies and holiday makers paying those prices

[Sheepshanks]

Kermit power said:

Currently on holiday in France... The price of food in supermarkets is simply staggering!

Things like onions, apples and red peppers are getting on for three times the price of a UK supermarket.

Any thoughts on why this would be?

Isn't a lot of stuff in France 3x the price of the UK? French colleagues particularly load up with DIY type stuff when they're over here. They say it's mainly down to tax and social costs - employing people in France is horrendously expensive.

[hyphen]

Kermit power said:

Currently on holiday in France... The price of food in supermarkets is simply staggering!

Things like onions, apples and red peppers are getting on for three times the price of a UK supermarket.

Any thoughts on why this would be?

So when adding up the cost of ingredients, is eating out good value? Or have restaurants also got stupidly expensive.

[CoolHands]

They don't do a full weeks work, neither

[227bhp]

Maybe France have it right or it's just a different way of ending up at the same place. It's often said that our farmers don't get paid enough for the milk they produce, yet we then pay them a subsidy. The veg growers have to employ cheap foreign labour to pick the produce to keep costs down.
It's probably just different ways of paying and buying, but in the end the total you pay (inc' taxes etc) is approximately the same as they eventually do, it's just given and taken in different ways.

[rdjohn]

hyphen said:

So when adding up the cost of ingredients, is eating out good value? Or have restaurants also got stupidly expensive.

In France you can still get a 4-course lunch with wine and coffee for €13 at a Routier type restaurant. I honestly cannot see how they do it - obviously lots of frozen stuff. Choice of main always includes steak and chips.

But for quality we have a Michelin recommended restaurant offering a set menu for €22. Menu changes every 2-weeks, but always offers quality stuff from local producers. A starred restaurant starts at €43.

At a nearby fish restaurant we can have 6-Oysters, Grilled Tuna main, cheese course and special desert for €28:50.

In the UK we struggle to find anywhere worthy of the description of a restaurant. Most of the stuff on offer is pre cooked souse-vide at best, but probably Brake Brothers, usually sat in a converted pub surrounded by screaming kids, whose parents don't give a damn. Franchises like Rick Stein are a complete joke. Great staff and views, but a very disappointing menu and what turns up is mediocre and well below what we cook at home. The only thing that is special are the prices.

Edited by rdjohn on Thursday 17th August 12:28

[Doofus]

I agree with all of this.

rdjohn said:

Stuff about quality restaurants often at excellent prices

The French eat in restaurants a lot more than we do, of course, so the restaurants are better at their jobs.

I don't agree with all of this.

smiffymoto said:

Personnally I think quality is higher in France also.

When it comes to fresh fruit and veg in a supermarket, it's common to find rotting items. We are spoiled in the UK by the supermarkets irradiating everything, and it makes us very picky in French supermakets. The French have an inexplicable fondness for ratatouille, so the mouldy veg isn't a problem for them, I suppose....

[Puggit]

CoolHands said:

They don't do a full weeks work, neither

Every tradesman I've employed at our French house has worked hard. Start at 8am, lunch 12-2pm, work until 7pm is quite typical.

Recently hired an emergency plumber, working through lunch without a thought.

Of course, many independent shops do shut for lunch (and Monday mornings after working Sunday morning).

[Doofus]

Puggit said:

Of course, many independent shops do shut for lunch (and Monday mornings after working Sunday morning).

And on the Monday immediately preceding a bank holiday Tuesday. For which they also close

[Dog Star]

I think an awful lot of the issues with French prices are down to the fact that you want anything doing then you're paying for huge bureaucracy, welfare state, trade bodies - the whole place now involves people trading what seem to be vast sums for work. This was always going to happen. I see a similar effect with, for example, what people will pay for a tradesman down in the SE of England vs the North. Knock on effect is that thew bloke who has just had to pay some vast sum to some accredited chap to trim his hedge will bung up the price of his widgets.

Quality of stuff doesn't in any way make up for the price differences we see between the UK and France, and the £/€ rate should make our stuff here more expensive as the majority is imported.

[Dog Star]

Sheepshanks said:

Isn't a lot of stuff in France 3x the price of the UK? French colleagues particularly load up with DIY type stuff when they're over here. They say it's mainly down to tax and social costs - employing people in France is horrendously expensive.

This.

I've lived and worked for years in France and although it's seen as some amazing social utopia some of it is, IMO, not sustainable.
A friend of mine (he used to work for Valeo back in the day; got me a set of Cibie rally lamps for almost nothing - his wife was pregnant. She got something like (and this is from memory) something daft like 75% of her salary as maternity.

And there's a fundamental flaw when tax is about 50%, but for the first x months of being unemployed you get at least 50% of your salary anyway.

(My figures will be wildly inaccurate now, because it was a few years ago; I just remember being aghast at their benefits system - it's the polar opposite of ours (which doesn't give enough to those who've paid in))

[Nimby]

Is this the same France that is "the best country in the world" in another thread?

[Puggit]

One of the biggest issues I face, as a holiday home owner, is the maintenance of the garden. Various local Brits have come and gone, and now there are none. So we must employ a frenchman.

The law states that only gardeners who are paid up members of a certain union or body can advertise their businesses. Because of the costs associated with being in this body (I can't remember the exact details), they cost a lot more. I pay €104 per hour.

Cheaper, local gardeners can only advertise by word of mouth - so they are difficult for me to find. The Marie is uninterested in helping.

[768]

I guess it varies to some extent and it's a significantly less densely populated country to supply.

But where we've been a few times in the Alps we find the local Carrefour to be very expensive, short on choice (think, not selling lamb, not just wanting some Wensleydale) and quality certainly wasn't the reason for the cost. Bugger all competition for them in the local area though.

The opening hours are even more sparse and confusing than in ME countries where they're barely open between calls to prayer.

[Puggit]

Nimby said:

Is this the same France that is "the best country in the world" in another thread?

Great place to visit on holiday, but once you dig under the surface...

[RizzoTheRat]

In recent years we've got used to all veg being in the supermarkets all year rather than just seasonal veg. Are the French more in to seasonal stuff so anything out of season is more expensive?

[768]

Puggit said:

The law states that only gardeners who are paid up members of a certain union or body can advertise their businesses. Because of the costs associated with being in this body (I can't remember the exact details), they cost a lot more. I pay €104 per hour.

[Sheepshanks]

Dog Star said:

And there's a fundamental flaw when tax is about 50%, but for the first x months of being unemployed you get at least 50% of your salary anyway.

Maybe it's the same end figure and things may have changed since the stories colleagues told, but I thought they got more like 80% of their net pay while unemployed, and it can go on for 2-3 years.

Also, income tax for "ordinary" working people is pretty low - the tax burden is shifted to employers as NI is far higher. So the theory is that French salaries should be lower than other European countries. Of course our French staff refuse to accept that!

[chopper602]

As we tend to either self cater or holiday in the motorhome, we've given France a wide berth for the last couple of years, the food is just too expensive. This year we have visited Belgium, Germany and Czech and found the prices a lot more reasonable (especially in CZ!).
Pork and beer in Germany is very cheap, but it's one of their food staples.

[Kermit power]

Well, whatever the reason, I'm unfortunately coming to the conclusion that after years of wonderful holidays in France, as well as living here, this will probably be the last time we come.

I love this country, but the cost of magic foodstuffs is just killing it.

Time to investigate ferries to Bilbao, I reckon.