Bienvenue à Auchan

So I spent an entire afternoon of April 26, 2010 and a good part of the evening (until my husband came to pick me up) at Auchan. Auchan is this humongous hypermarket (a french enterprise originally, controlled by the Mulliez family - a wealthy French family) with a range of services and goods that is mindblowing. For those of us only accustomed to Walmart and its size, I must inform you, this is sensational. In laymans terms, consider having two aisles just for cheese or better still four aisles for meats! My amazement does not stop there. One can behold an extensive variety in the categories of lait, fromage, pasta, pain, dessert, de glace, poisson, viande.....so on and so forth.

The term kaleidoscope comes to mind, when I think Auchan - or perhaps its a reaction from a naive foreigner ! But take a look at the official English site, if you are the curious kind !

http://www.groupe-auchan.com/activites/Organisation.html

The expanse of Auchan is largely European with its extensions into Asia and the Middle East. Regardless, first impression is truly global ! The exception however is that it does not have any presence in the United States - actually North America. Why? Je nais se pas ! I am yet to research into that subject. I cannot help but make the connection between this fact and that the French have low tolerance towards English and Anglophones. Ce'st possible !!

See below for some key dates that i pulled out from the site itself.

Key dates
1967 Six years after Gérard Mulliez opened the first store, the first Auchan hypermarket was opened in Roncq, in Northern France.
1981 Alcampo is created in Spain.
1989 First Auchan in Italy.
1996-1999 Acceleration of growth: acquisition of the Docks de France group (France, Spain) and the Spanish and Portuguese activities of Pao de Açucar. Partnership with the Rinascente group in Italy, first Auchan hypermarkets in Luxembourg, Poland, Hungary and China.
2001 Alliance with Mart in China. Acqusition of RT Mart hypermarkets in Taiwan.
2002 First Auchan hypermarkets in Russia.
2004 In Italy, acquisition of the totality of La Rinascente food business.
2006 First Auchan hypermarket in Bucharest (Romania), opened in partnership with MGV Distri-Hiper.
2007 Auchan signed a agreement with Az SpA, to operate franchised hypermarkets in the Calabria region. Partnership agreement signed with the Furshet Group in Ukraine.
Agreement with Enka Group in Russia for the operation of 13 hypermarkets.
2008 Auchan opens it's first hypermarket in Kiev (Ukraine).
Agreement with Dubai World in Dubai to develop the Auchan banner.
2009 Acquisition of 100% of the capital in Romania (6 hypermarkets).
First Auchan opening in Dubai, in partnership with Dubai World.

I have not figured out today's agenda, except get translations for a 1000 labels that I penned down at Auchan ( mind you, most of the labels are in French or German....very rarely in English).

Bonne étude!!