The state, small shops and hypermarkets: A public policy for retail, France, 1945–1973

Abstract

This article examines contemporary French retail history, studying both transformations in retail structures and evolutions in government retail policies from 1945 to 1973. It notably questions the existence of a defined public policy for the retail sector. Based on extensive archival research, it is designed to offer an overview of the topic in order to familiarise international scholars with French retail history, while stimulating discussion and providing case material to enable comparisons with other national cases.

Keywords:

• Retail
• public policy
• loi Royer
• Gérard Nicoud
• hypermarkets

Notes

1. See Daumas, ‘L’invention des usines à vendre’; Daumas, ‘Consommation de masse’; Chadeau, ‘Entre familles et manager’.

2. Chessel and Chatriot, ‘L’histoire de la distribution’.

3. See Alexander, ‘Format Development’; Alexander, Nell, Bailey and Shaw, ‘The Co-creation of a Retail Innovation’; Alexander, ‘Past, Present and Future’; Alexander, ‘Decision-making Authority’; Alexander, Curth and Shaw ‘Selling Self-service’; Alexander and Shaw, ‘Interlocking Directorates’.

4. See Scarpellini, La spesa è uguale per tutti; Scarpellini and Cavazza, La rivoluzione dei consumi; Scarpellini, ‘Shopping American-style’.

5. Leclerc, Ma vie pour un combat.

6. Thil, Combat pour la distribution; Thil, Les Inventeurs du commerce moderne.

7. This article is inspired by Cédric Perrin’s historical work on France’s craftsmen and economic policy between 1938 and 1970. Perrin, Entre glorification et abandon.

8. This research focuses mainly on public intervention and structural transformations in the sub-sector of general food stores and groceries, as those are the ones that went through the biggest change. Specialised food stores, such as butchers and bakeries, as well as non-food stores, did not face the same decline during the period. The competition between small independent grocery stores and hypermarkets was the harshest, the most visible and the most symbolic of post-war retail transformations.

9. Moran, Rein and Goodin, The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy.

10. France being so centralised, it appears appropriate to solely focus on the action of the central state.

11. Boddewyn and Hollander, Public Policy Toward Retailing; Davies, Retail Planning Policies in Western Europe.

12. A deliberate action, with an aim, a framework, a public, and different means and instruments.

13. Davies, Retail and Commercial Planning 72–74.

14. See Mendras, La Seconde Révolution française; Adams, Restructuring the French Economy; Kuisel, Capitalism and the State.

15. Decker, Kipping and Wadhwani, ‘New Business Histories’.

16. De Jong, Higgins and van Driel, ‘Towards a New Business History?’.

17. Notably business and management, geography, sociology and economics.

18. Davies, Retail and Commercial Planning.

19. Guy, ‘Controlling New Retail Spaces’; Davies, Retail and Commercial Planning; Davies, Retail Planning Policies.

20. Boddewyn and Hollander, Public Policy Toward Retailing.

21. The bureaucratic authority on retail related issues.

22. Three main professional journals were referred to: Libre-Service Actualités, launched in 1958, became the reference journal for capitalistic retailers; L’épicier coopérateur was a fairly small journal issued by a cooperative union; L’épicerie française was intended for small independent retailers, it became close to the communist party at the end of the 1960s.

23. Badel, Un milieu libéral et européen; Rives, Traité d’économie commerciale.

24. Georges Lasserre quoted by Quin, Physionomie et perspectives 37.

25. Centre des Archives Économiques et Financières (CAEF), B16022, Consumption Service, 1949, Inventory of the Retail Apparatus.

26. INSEE, Yearly Statistical Book, 1950.

27. Centre des Archives Économiques et Financières (CAEF), B16022, Consumption Service, 1949, Inventory of the Retail Apparatus.

28. It is yet difficult to appraise retail labour force for the 1950s based on salaried employees, as many shopkeepers benefited from the help of their family (wife, children, etc.). Jefferys and Knee provide some data on family workers in retail: Jefferys and Knee, Retailing in Europe.

29. Quin, Physionomie et perspectives 120.

30. Carluer-Lossouarn, L’aventure des premiers 61; Costes, Les supermarchés 169.

31. Bloch-Lainé and Bouvier, La France restaurée.

32. The concept of productivity was widely advertised in the 1950s, notably by Jean Fourastié: Fourastié, La productivité.

33. Malinvaud, Carré and Dubois, Abrégé de la croissance 109.

34. Center for Economic and Financial Archives (CAEF), B16022, Consumption Service, 1949, Inventory of the Retail Apparatus.

35. Retail geography in France for the 1960s and 1970s has been studied in deep detail by Michel Coquery. See Coquery, Mutations et structures.

36. Braudel and Labrousse, Histoire économique 997.

37. Quin, Physionomie et perspectives 20.

38. Havas Conseil, La distribution 29.

39. Jefferys and Knee, Retailing in Europe.

40. On Leclerc’s history, one can read journalist and entrepreneurs books: Chavane, Le phénomène Leclerc; Carluer-Lossouarn, Leclerc; Thil, Combat pour la distribution; Leclerc, Ma vie pour un combat.

41. Thil, Combat pour la distribution.

42. Baud, Coup de tonnerre.

43. Jacques, ‘Refus de vente interdit !’.

44. Kuisel, Capitalism and the State.

45. The Five Year Economic Planning Commission.

46. Kuisel, ‘L’american Way of Life’.

47. The United Kingdom carried out a full census of retail in 1950, in 1957 and in 1961; Germany undertook two major surveys in 1950 and 1961, and carried out a census in 1959; Italy and Belgium both conducted a full census in 1961.

48. Libre-Service Actualités, no. 19, 6 July 1959.

49. National Archives (AN), 19770241/68, interview of the Minister of Commerce, Raymond Boisdé, 10 June 1954.

50. Hoffmann, Le mouvement Poujade; Souillac, Le mouvement Poujade.

51. Tristram, Un impôt au service.

52. In the 1930s, during the Third Republic, different laws put a stop on the expansion of chain stores and policies were generally favourable to small shopkeepers. See Badel, Un milieu libéral et européen.

53. Article 51 of Law no 51–592, 24 May 1951.

54. CAEF, B51183/1, DCI, internal note on the reform of distributive trades, 17 January 1955.

55. Preface of Thil, Les inventeurs du commerce.

56. Gilles and Fauvin, Du blocage des prix.

57. AN, AG/5(1)/2430, Presidency of the Republic, internal note for Charles de Gaulle, ‘read by the General’, 27 June 1959.

58. Quoted in Thil, Les inventeurs du commerce.

59. AN, AG/5(1)/2430, Presidency of the Republic, minute of the interministerial meeting on distribution, chaired by Joseph Fontanet, 31 July 1959.

60. Gousset, ‘Pour une histoire des ministères’.

61. France had then a price control policy.

62. AN, 80AJ/113, Third Planning Commission, Report of the Commission for Commerce, May 1957.

63. Rueff and Armand, Rapport sur les obstacles 18.

64. Notably La Caisse centrale de crédit hôtelier, commercial et industriel (CCCHCI); la Caisse centrale de crédit coopératif (CCCC); le Crédit national (CN); les sociétés de caution mutuelles (SCM).

65. AN, 19770241/45, DAC, internal note on retail credits improvment, 8 September 1961.

66. Prêts de productivité.

67. AN, 19910025/2, DAC, internal note to Joseph Fontanet, July 1961.

68. Centre d’Assistance technique au commerce (CEFAC).

69. CAEF, B51183/1, DAC, questions asked by the Economic affairs commission at the Sénat, 2 January 1963.

70. For instance: Association Française de Recherches et d’Etudes Statistiques Commerciales (AFRESCO); Institut Français du Libre-Service (IFLS).

71. La Commission des Comptes commerciaux de la Nation.

72. Institut national des statistiques et des études économiques (INSEE).

73. AN, 19910028/1, DCIP, internal note, February 1966.

74. AN, 19910028/1, DCIP, Report for the Prime Minister on the Retail Census, March 1965.

75. Paridoc.

76. AN, 91AJ/21, Minister of Construction’s secretary, letter from Michel Debré (signed by his hand) to Pierre Sudreau, 8 February 1961.

77. AN, 19910025/2, DAC, letter from Antoine Veil to Robert Gardellini, private secretary of Telecommunication minister, 21 June 1961; AN, 19910025/2, DAC, letter from d’Antoine Veil to the Ministry of Construction, June 24 1961.

78. Jacques, ‘Refus de vente interdit!’.

79. A decree was published in 1953, the Décret Faure, but was nullified in 1958 by the State Council. Thus the Government promulgated a new decree in June 1958.

80. A very numerous correspondence between Leclerc and the State administration was found in the Elysée archives’ fonds (Presidency of the Republic): AN, AG/5(1)/2430.

81. Adams, Restructuring the French Economy 228.

82. Moati, L’avenir de la grande distribution 45.

83. Commercial amalgamation or reshaping.

84. AN, 19910028/4, DAC, Report on Prices and Costs in Distributive Trades, February 1964.

85. Members of the prestigious Inspection des Finances.

86. ‘Profitons des prêts de productivité’, L’Épicerie française, no 796, Saturday 18 February1961.

87. AN, 19770241/49, DAC, note from the Treasury department to the Ministry of Finance, 5 October 1964.

88. Direction du commerce intérieur et des prix (DCIP).

89. AN, 19770241/45, DCIP, internal on retail modernisation conditions, 16 January 1965.

90. Les Assises nationales du Commerce, July 1963–April 1964.

91. Mendras, La fin des paysans.

92. Tristram, Une fiscalité pour la croissance chapter 8.

93. In the late 1950s and during the 1960s, in Dayton, Ohio, the National Cash Register Company (NCR) organised week-long seminars to promote the diffusion of modern merchandising methods (MMM seminars) and discount to European entrepreneurs. Bernardo Trujillo, who was in charge of the seminars, became quite famous in the French retail milieu, notably for his sound bites like ‘No parking, no business’, ‘Pile up and sell low’ or ‘Poor people need low prices. Rich people love them’. There is little information about Trujillo and the MMM seminars, but it has been verified that all the major French entrepreneurs in retail went to Dayton, with the exception of Édouard Leclerc. See Jacques, ‘L’américanisation du commerce français’.

94. Villermet, Naissance de l’hypermarché; Lhermie, Carrefour ou l’invention de l’hypermarché.

95. Even if Carrefour stores are often remembered as being the first hypermarkets, as the company built its identity on this idea, hypermarkets are actually a Belgian invention. Maurice Cauwe and Jacques Dopchie, who attended Trujillo’s seminars, opened three SuperBazars in 1961 in Bruge, Auderghem and Anderlecht. These stores offered food and non-food products under the same roof, they extended over a sale area comprised between 3,300 m² and 9,100 m² and were equipped with a parking lot. Read: Grimmeau, ‘A Forgotten Anniversary’.

96. Sallée, ‘L’équipement des ménages au début de 1974’.

97. Moati, L’avenir de la grande distribution.

98. Data collected and compiled by the author.

99. AN, 19910028/4, DCI, ‘Les orientations de l’urbanisme commercial’, Report of the European Commission, 1978.

100. AN, 19910029/2, DCIP, Report Comparing French and German Retail Apparatus, National Accounting Ccommission, 1971.

101. AN, AG/5(2)/341, Élysée, internal note from the central directorate of General Intelligence Services, 11 April 1970; David, L’épisode Cid-Unati; Bonnet, ‘Un nouveau groupe de pression’.

102. Nicoud, Les dernières libertés.

103. Created in 1791 in order to finance local authorities, the patente tax was notably considered an unfair tax as its scale was dependent on rental premises and not to business turnover. With its multiple rates and the complexity of its functioning, the VAT, extended to retail in 1968, also discontented small retailers, who complained about a paperwork overload.

104. Chapman, ‘Shopkeepers and the State’.

105. Millet, ‘Après la lutte’.

106. David, L’épisode Cid-Unati.

107. Interview with Gérard Nicoud,1 h and 33 min, recorded by the author, on 17 June 2014, in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

108. Nicoud, Les dernières libertés; Nicoud, Au risque de déplaire.

109. Guillemet, ‘Le commerce de détail’ 35–36.

110. Guillemet, ‘Le commerce de détail’ 18–19.

111. AN, 19910012/3, DCIP, letter from Georges Pompidou to Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, circulated within the government and central administrations, 14 November 1969.

112. AN, 540/AP/25, ‘Objectifs et moyens d’une politique du commerce’, report written by Jean-Pierre Fourcade, director of the DCIP, to Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, June 1969.

113. Interministerial circular, no 61–43, 24 August 1961.

114. Metton, ‘Les mutations de l’équipement commercial’; AN, 19910012/2, DCIP, internal note on urbanism, 20 June 1967; AN, 19910012/2, DCIP, internal note on retail planning, 20 June 1967.

115. Sirinelli, La Ve République.

116. Mayer, La boutique contre la gauche; Mayer, ‘Identité sociale’; Mayer and Michelat, ‘Les choix électoraux’.

117. Berger, Organizing Interests 91; Berger, ‘D’une boutique à l’autre’.

118. AN, 19800273/293, Ministry of Interior, secret telegram issued by the Minister of Interior to all Préfets, 4 March 1970.

119. Regional State representatives.

120. Gilles and Fauvin, Du blocage des prix.

121. AN, 19910012/2, DCIP, note by Jean-Pierre Fourcade (director of the DCIP) for the Minister of Public Works, 20 March 1970.

122. Commissariat général du Plan, Plan de développement économique et social.

123. Margairaz, ‘Le commissariat au Plan’.

124. Notably: law no 72–657, 13 July 1972.

125. ‘Un problème délicat. La déflation des fonds de commerce’, Libre-Service Actualités, no. 272, 20 February 1969.

126. ‘Non à la taxe discriminatoire sur les grandes et moyennes surface’, Libre-Service Actualités, no. 405, 11 May 1972.

127. ‘Pour une loi d’orientation efficace’, L’Épicerie française, no. 305, Saturday 5 May 1973.

128. Gresle, ‘Chapitre 15’ 299.

129. Law no. 73–1193, 27 December 1973.

130. Metton, ‘Retail Planning Policy in France’.

131. Messerlin, La révolution commerciale.

132. Péron, ‘La loi Royer, la grande distribution’.

133. Allain and Chambolle, ‘Les relations entre la grande distribution’.

134. Bertrand and Kramarz, ‘Does Entry Regulation’.

135. Berger, ‘D’une boutique à l’autre’.

136. Interview with Gérard Nicoud,1 h and 33 min, recorded by the author, on 17 June 2014, in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

137. Massé, Le plan ou l’anti-hasard

138. Davies, Retail and Commercial Planning

139. Interview with Gérard Nicoud,1 hour and 33 minutes, recorded by the author, on June 17 2014, in Neuilly-sur-Seine.