What a new love of shopping malls says aboutFrench society
購物中心的新寵如何評價法國社會
WITH polished stone floors and a plate-glass roof, ashimmering multi-storey shopping mall has just opened beside a motorway north of Paris.Named Qwartz, and costing 300m ($510m), it houses 165 shops and what developers call“eating concepts”. Two other American-style shopping malls opened in the greater Paris regionlast year, and a third, So Ouest, in 2012. A country that prides itself on chic designerboutiques and artisanal shops seems to be turning into one of mall rats.
Partly this is just catching up. Until recently, strict planning rules stopped big out-of-townshopping centres around the French capital. Most malls that existed, such as Vélizy 2 or Rosny2, dated from the 1970s, when five new towns were built in the Paris suburbs. But a newrelaxed attitude has now let more modern projects go ahead.
It also points to two features of French society that escape the gaze of historic Paris. One ismost shoppers' suburban way of life. Only 2.2m people live in the capital itself. Yet the greaterParis region, excluding the city, counts over four times more inhabitants, many in small townsand car-dependent suburbs. The new malls, ringed by car parks, are handy, even alluring.Fully 62% of the French told one poll that malls were their favourite places to shop, ahead ofthe high street or traditional department stores.
The other trend is the global taste of consumers. Besides a huge French hypermarket,Qwartz's big pull is Primark, an Irish cheap-fashion retailer, and Marks & Spencer, a Britishchain. Just down the road, So Ouest boasts Hollister, an American surfwear brand, Starbucks,an American coffee house, and ubiquitous foreign fashion chains such as H&M (Swedish)and Zara (Spanish). In today's temples of consumption, global is a la mode.
This is not quite the France favoured by Arnaud Montebourg, the industry minister andarchitect of a “Made in France” campaign. He is now trying to keep American hands off Alstom,the French maker of TGV fast trains. He once posed cheerfully for a magazine, dressed in astriped Breton top and holding a Moulinex food-blender.
Yet even French brands are not always home-made, as Benjamin Carle, a reporter, discoveredfilming a television documentary about his efforts to live for a year using only products madein France. The result was comic—and sobering. Not only was it impossible to find some items,including a fridge and coffee. Mr Carle initially had to empty his flat of anything that did notmeet the test of 50% of its value being made in France. Out went the bicycle, computer, guitar,most of the furniture, beer, clothes, toothbrush and more. The share of his stuff that qualifiedas French-made? Just 4.5%.