the small grocery store A Buttega, in Bastia, is resisting

Small neighborhood grocery stores will soon be nothing more than a distant memory. But even if consumption habits have changed, some of them remain open. For 40 years, the Loriot family has run the small grocery store facing Notre Dame de Lourdes. We met them.

“Last June, to celebrate my sixtieth birthday, we went on a cruise to Italy with my husband. It was the first vacation I took in my entire life”smiles Christine Loriot, giving her change to a regular at the small grocery store.

The shopkeeper began working around forty years ago in the family grocery store, just a few meters from the Notre-Dame de Lourdes church, when her parents took over the establishment. And since then, she has never left the small room.

When I was young, I was a hairdresser. And my boss couldn’t think of anything better than to set the living room on fire…”

Nothing destined the young woman to become a grocer. “Life wanted it that way. I was a hairdresser, and my boss couldn’t think of anything better than to set the salon on fire. He thought he could make thousands and cents with his insurance… At the same time, my father, who was a construction manager, found himself on a long illness, and my mother was laid off from Prisunic. So one day we saw an advert, we came to visit. was delighted with the idea, and we embarked on the adventure…”

Forty years later, the Loriot grocery store has remained a family affair. Christine, helped by her husband, Frédéric, runs the establishment, but her sister Sylviane sometimes replaces her, and customers still regularly see Anne-Marie, their mother, at 83, behind the counter.

Here, it’s all about permanence. The small place has hardly changed since the beginning. “At one time, we wanted to modernize it, with my sister, but my mother never agreed. And years later, I tell myself that she was right. People like to come to places like this -there. And in the summer, when the tourists come in, they are amazed, and take photos of the grocery store, they are no longer used to seeing that, it reminds them of their childhood…”

The A Buttega grocery store, open 7 days a week, all day, for four decades (until 2020, when the family made the decision to close on Sunday afternoons), saw the world change around her.

It has survived the proliferation of gigantic shopping centers on the outskirts of the city, but also of small convenience stores in the city center, fake grocery stores all designed on the same model, and belonging to large groups.

Christine shrugs. For her, contrary to what one might think, it was not the hardest to manage: “We offer something other than these brands. We focus a lot on hospitality, the people who come to us, they also come to pass the time. We know them, we discuss everything and nothing…”

It started with the opening of the tunnel! And then little by little, all the administrations moved south of the city…

The problem, Christine believes, is the city center which is inexorably emptying. And the lively sixty-year-old hastens to point out that this is not new: “It started with the opening of the tunnel! And then little by little, all the administrations moved towards the south of the city… At one time, we had the Assedics, the ANPE, the Toga hospital… All the people who worked there, and who came to do their shopping, are no longer there”.

Christine greets the manager of the neighboring tobacco shop, who passes in front of the grocery store, then sweeps the street of Commander Luce de Casabianca with a wave of her hand: “look, there’s no one left… the traffic jams are over… In the center, it’s still just as difficult to park, but when it comes to driving, there aren’t really any problems anymore .”

Christine makes a brave face against bad luck. She welcomes customers with a smile, and never loses her good humor. People do not have to endure the difficulties of trade, she insists. But our coming is an opportunity for her to share her concerns, after a summer season “moche”and a gloomy autumn. “It’s been a long time since we’ve earned any money. The key is to be able to generate a salary. And in October, for example, that wasn’t the case.”

“And when I talk about salary”, specifies Christine after leaving her counter to line up a few boxes of breadcrumbs on a shelf“I’m not talking about 2,000 euros… If there are 1,000 euros left, at the end of the month, we can consider ourselves happy, at this moment…”

Fruits and vegetables have increased so much that we no longer even take our margin on them, otherwise it is unsaleable.

When we tell her that it is perhaps because of the prices charged in grocery stores that there are fewer and fewer customers, she rolls her eyes: “We do everything we can to charge reasonable prices. Fruits and vegetables have increased so much that we no longer even take our margin on them, otherwise it’s unsaleable. And we manage the stock as closely as possible. My husband goes shopping every morning at Cacciari, after having taken inventory of what we are missing, and I can guarantee you that we take the products individually. If a lump of butter is missing, we take it! a pat of butter, not more”.

Christine remains silent for a few moments, looking thoughtful, before continuing: “The problem is much deeper. I’m not talking about us, grocery stores are not affected, but take internet purchases… People love ordering on the internet. They tell you that they are attached to Corsica, that “They are worried about the desertification of the city center, but they prefer to do their shopping from their sofa than to go to the street. Their money goes to the continent, and they let Corsica go to waste”.

Once again, we brandish the argument of unbeatable internet prices. Without success. “If that were the only reason, we would just have to bow down”replies Christine, “but it’s more complicated than that. I have a friend who has a clothing store, and who also receives packages for people who order on the internet. People order the models she has in store , and which are the same price in store, since it’s a national chain! They come to the store to collect their package, anyway. Why do they bother ordering from the continent?

I have a son and I did everything to prevent him from following our path

We take a look at the heavy closed wooden door, on the other side of the sidewalk, where, for decades, the other “historic” bookstore on the street was located, which closed last year. And we ask the grocer how she finds the strength every morning to open the shop. “I don’t really have a choice… What else could I do? I have ten years left to work, before I have all my terms. And then I continue to believe in it, I tell myself that given our work life, the good Lord is not going to abandon us overnight!”she says with a burst of laughter.

One thing is certain, when Christine and her husband retire, the family tradition will be over. “I have a son and I did everything to prevent him from following our path. We paid for his studies in Paris, he is 28 years old and he is a mechanical engineer on airplanes. We left behind feathers, financially, believe me! But we didn’t want him to live our lives, constantly worrying about what tomorrow will bring…”