Compiled 13 May, updated 16 May 2026
Above: market shares of distributors in France
The French invented hypermarkets, where I started working in 1979, at Carrefour.
I always wondered why they had not abandoned it, given the growing difficulties of the format.
The answer came to me via French GD expert Olivier Dauvers: the turnover of these ‘monsters’ remains impressive. The top 25 French hypermarkets turnover €4.3 billion, and the top 6 have revenues in excess of €200 million.
Leclerc rises in this ranking and Auchan falls: 10 years ago Leclerc had only one store in the top 25, today there are 7. Auchan had 16, today it is 7.
Leclerc, the French market leader, has continued to focus on hypermarkets, with success.
It should be noted that the Carrefour hypermarkets, in addition to having trained and fascinated me, were also a point of reference for our operational work: with Dr Alessandro D’Este, last on the right, pictured below, in 1991 – and other buyers, we often visited those in Antibes (first in the ranking) and Nice (Lingostière, seventh in the ranking).
From these visits came many confirmations for the path we were taking in Esselunga with organic, private label – we were on the right track – but also for the cold meats and cheeses cut and sold in front of the deli, in a self-service counter, a project I developed on my way back from one of these trips with the young assistant buyers and non-food and non-food buyers.
p.s.: the function of assistant buyer had been set up by me, following the example seen at Dominick’s in Chicago, I talked about it in my book Le Ossa dei Caprotti.
