This is my shopping basket (cabas). The same type as used by almost every person in France. Simple, 100% natural, and perfectly practical.
Baskets are a way of life in France; no self-respecting person would be seen dead with either a plastic or paper bag, it would bring shame on the family.
Of course there is some social snobbery connected to baskets. Proper wicker baskets are possibly top of the aristocratic ladder; especially if large and locally made, but this one above does me fine. My only bit of luxury being the leather covered handles, which some don't have.
I remember being in an English supermarket with my basket (Sainsbury's), when a large pompous-looking woman scolded me for not having taken a dedicated wire basket from inside the entrance. I explained to her that it was a SHOPPING BASKET, for SHOPPING, and she almost phoned the police. When I asked for her name (and explained that I was a shareholder) she sensibly disappeared.
How stupid can people be; I have always refused to use plastic bags (and hate plastic wrappings), yet here was this woman almost insisting that I should.
I suppose one of the most instantly noticeable differences between UK and French streets must be the use of store-promoting plastic bags. The UK is awash; France not.
We use cloth bags here......a basket would not be useful for me as I shop every other week and that makes for a big pile of groceries.
ReplyDeleteI don't much like plastic bags but have found uses for them. The trouble is the ones here are so flimsy about half have holes in them by the time you take your groceries out.
ReplyDeleteThe basket is a good idea for shopping other than groceries. I would need 5 to 10 of those baskets when I buy groceries.
We don't usually buy any fruit or veg; we grow our own. Otherwise I find it plenty big enough, other than for the huge bags of dog food.
DeleteThat is a lovely shopper basket, Cro. I think you should get your Aussie daughter to import them for s to buy here too.
ReplyDeleteI remember days before the dreadful plastic shopping bag, plastic water bottles, plastic milk bottles etc. They all breed, nothing disposable and recyclable about any of it.
I remember my mother shopping in the local greengrocer's - he'd weigh out the muddy spuds, then tip them into Mum's bag and put everything else on top. Then he'd slice meats on a slicer that was last cleaned during the Crimean campaign. Once in a while he'd also deliver the goods - on a classic delivery bicycle, front wheel smaller than the back in order to accommodate the basket/box holder. Real shopping, and aye, we lived in a shoebox wi'out a lid.
ReplyDeleteYou have no idea how slowly a bag can be packed unless you've seen me at a checkout where my groceries have been scanned at record speed and thrown down the chute at me in no particular order and with no care other than to stick a claw out at me for the money... On occasion I have physically thrown things back. I'm a git of a customer sometimes... ;-)
Yes, I've noticed on our sojourns to France, the plastic bags are available but at cost, so nobody, including us, uses them.
ReplyDeleteSuppose I'm a little bit guilty, I use the superstores "bag for life", a heavier re-usable version, which up to now seem to be lasting pretty well, 2 years and counting.
Yes Ian, your memories of shopping with your mother ring true with me. and nobody seemed to die from it either. I sometimes think we're a bit too steralised and sanitised now?
And you're spot-on with the check-out scenes a s well, I defy any normal person to pack as fast as the girls can scan, especially when they seem to start with the stuff you want on top.
Oh those were the days - I used to love the smell of grocery shops, the bacon slicer and the butter pats - yes I am old enough to remember. Wondering about the design of your basket - why is one end higher than the other - or is it just an optical illusion?
ReplyDeleteI think it's just the way they're made; a bit like a coil pot. Round and round until big enough!
DeleteWhat shop were you a shareholder of Cro... the Co-op? Hope you had your divi number to quote
ReplyDeleteLLX
I adore your shopping basket. I had one for many years, it was my grandmothers but it was so old that it literally fell apart, my heart was broken.
ReplyDeleteI use cloth bags here, and you would not believe the comments, rude remarks, and other crap that I receive when using bags in a regular grocery. The only place I do not receive remarks is the farmers market. I have even had store employees checking my bags for theft, as I do know that people steal, but it is a sign of the times.
Unfortunately, where I live, in the middle of the country where we are far behind many things, cloth bags are a novelty. But I go full steam ahead and continue to use them.
Have a wonderful week for you and the lovely Lady M.
Many people do not have the luxury of a garden or the time to shop everyday so a lovely basket as you have would not be practical. In the past year I have noticed that many places in the US are charging you for bags if you do not bring your own. This will definitely cut down on the use of plastic bags. Now, we have to find a way of getting rid of those blasted plastic bottles.
ReplyDeleteThe use of plastic shopping bags here has been drastically reduced as every one is costed out at 5p per bag. The money goes to charity. It's made a huge difference to the litter problem which is great. I like your shopping basket - looks smart as well as practical
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly about plastic bags Cro - they are disgusting things. Our local supermarket bought sixty special shopping baskets with wheels and a long handle (black plastic) so that elderly customers could push them round the shop while shopping. In a short while they had all disappeared - it seems those same elderly customers were pushing them to their cars, putting them in the boot and taking them home. They made marvellous planters for water plants in the bottom of garden ponds.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Cro, no bags for us either. We use a basket and in the bottom are a couple of cloth bags in case we get carried away with items we "just had to have"
ReplyDeletestring bags rule,ok.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a shopping basket like that, but i do have a number of string bags and cloth bags. Been using the cloth bags and one of the string bags for years. One of the baggers mentioned she liked the quality of the bag, and asked me where i got it. I told her and then added that i'd had that bag for nearly 30 years. They were older than she was.
ReplyDeletePeople are finally learning to use cloth bags here (the grocery stores now charge for plastic bags) but I've never seen them use baskets like that, which is too bad, because they look so practical! I do like the bags I get from one store that fold out into a sort of box with handles (the basket concept!) That's about as close as we get.
ReplyDeleteI recently bought my first shopping basket at the farmer's market. Like yours, it has leather handles. It's quite lovely. I needed something other than my cloth bags, because I walk to the Saturday outdoor market and use a rolling cart. The cart has large wire mesh and so items tend to poke through if not contained. The basket works perfectly and looks beautiful to boot.
ReplyDeleteMy kids would die of embarrassment if I took a 'proper' basket like this into the supermarket. So I use cloth ones. But now I've read this, I'm seriously thinking of taking my cane basket next time. I shall smilingly say 'cette quand ils faire en France!' with a pretend accent. Things get all squashed together in my cloth ones.
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