The Casino group, which operated a large 4,000 square metre store until 2016, had cited insecurity and excessive violence as reasons for closing the supermarket.
Ten years without being able to do your shopping on foot in Grigny. In this deprived town of nearly 30,000 inhabitants located in the southern suburbs of Paris, the first stone of a supermarket to replace a store closed in 2016 was laid on Saturday, with a view to opening in 2026.
A “great pleasure” tinged with relief for Michèle Moncourt, a 75-year-old retired woman from Grignoise. Until today, this resident of the newly built city center took the bus to do her shopping at the Leclerc hypermarket in the neighboring town of Viry-Châtillon.
“I take what I can, with the strength of my arms, and for packs of water I wait for the days when my children are available, I am reduced to that”, regrets this resident of Grigny since 1976.
Until 2016, the Casino group operated a large 4,000 square meter store in the city before closing its doors, citing too many cases of violence. The inflation of security expenses, 6% of turnover in Grigny compared to 0.6% on average in other stores in the southern suburbs of Paris at the time, had made the site loss-making, according to the brand.
A desire to revitalize the city center of Grigny again
On Saturday, despite the fine rain that is falling continuously on the square where the supermarket is due to be built in early 2026, in the heart of the new city centre, the atmosphere is one of popular joy. Surrounded by elected officials, residents and the family that runs the future supermarket, the communist mayor Philippe Rio grabs a trowel to cement the first stone.
“You can applaud yourselves, you have given us the strength to continue,” thunders the mayor of Grigny.
The project suffered from the lack of candidates to take over from Casino until 2019, when the O’Marché Frais brand (since renamed Marché Frais), mainly located in working-class neighborhoods in the Paris region, agreed to set up in Grigny.
But the building permit for this future large surface area of 5,000 square meters, topped with a car park with more than 800 spaces, was the subject of two appeals in 2020 and 2022 by the company managing the Viry-Châtillon hypermarket, concerned about the impact of this project on the number of visitors to neighboring shops.
Reopening a supermarket represented a promise to revitalize the new city center, which was supposed to transform a “bedroom town” into a “city center,” according to the municipality.
“Adapt to the area”
This area, where several hundred new homes have been created, is intended to connect the working-class districts of Grande Borne and Grigny 2, which is home to one of the largest co-ownerships in Europe, plagued by over-housing and unsanitary conditions.
The “judicial and political marathon” undertaken resulted in “a victory in our fight for the right to the city”, Philippe Rio said on Saturday. The new brand must also be accessible in terms of price.
“The aim of the Marché Frais group is to adapt to the area,” promises Céline Quattrucci, president of the Marché Frais group, which was co-founded by her husband Bruno Quattrucci.
Because “life is expensive” for the city’s residents, confides Nora Belgroul, a 54-year-old maintenance worker for the city, who also lives in the new housing in the city center. In her purple dress and matching scarf, petit four in hand, she rejoices with her friends that the brand is also creating jobs “for young people and mothers” in the area – 150 after opening according to the municipality.
She also doesn’t have a car to go shopping and relies on her family and friends to accompany her. “We go together with friends when we do the big shopping for the month,” says the woman who admits that she has neither the means nor the desire to “bother friends” to go shopping every week.
For those who live a little further away, a solution has already been found: since December, the T12 tramway which links Massy to Evry stops less than ten minutes on foot from the future supermarket.
