Talk:Carrefour/Archives/2013

slogans?
How on earth do the slogans fit in with this article? Also, where did they come from? It's like they have been tossed in, as an extra bit of trivia without explanation or citation. --74.230.147.182 (talk) 15:05, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

hypermarket concept
Can we get a citation on the hypermarket concept? The article states "The Carrefour group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket" but it links to the hypermarket article which says "concept was pioneered by the United States Fred Meyer chain, which opened the first hypermarket in 1931". Perhaps it should say "pioneered the concept of a hypermarket in Europe" --Joshuadfranklin 17:26, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

A hypermarket is not quite the same as a full-service supermarket (with fresh produce, instore bakery, service counters etc) or a big box general merchandise store, in that it is both in a very large building (minimum 6000 sq m, more typically 8000-12000 sq m) and usually with at least a few independent shops (quick service restaurants, dry cleaners, jewelry/specialty/mass market fashion) inside facing the checkouts, if not a complete mini-mall within the building (a commercial centre). Its fair to say that Carrefour and Auchan very much popularised the concept around the world (with other european groups following in their wake). From what I can see of Fred Meyer, their stores don't fit this model entirely, and may or may not have pre-dated Carrefour with that concept. HEB and Super Target fit more closely, Wall-Mart is moving that way. Tesco internationally also fits that model (Czech, Turkey, South Korea, China, Thailand and Malaysia).

Stripped?
"In April 1976 Carrefour stripped around fifty basic food products (oil, biscuits, milk, pastes...) of any brand and sold them at bottom price. These Produits libres (Free Products) caused a sensation. At the time this marketing strategy was considered by some in France to be "anti-capitalist", presumably following a Francophone line of thought that the natural instinct of capitalists is never to risk a profit margin by undermining the power of brands. Certainly no-one has ever suggested that Wal-Mart or Tesco are "anti-capitalist" for doing similar things. Jean Mothes, one of the executives of Perrier, wrote in "Investir" that Carrefour did much more to accelerate the swap to a socialist-led government than Edmond Maire, Georges Marchais, François Mitterrand and Georges Séguy joined together."

This paragraph needs to be revised. What does "bottom price" mean? Very inexpensive? That is not the same thing as "free", which means no price at all.

"Stripped" the products?

Paytonc 05:48, 8 October 2006 (UTC) : reworded it as best as I could understand. Removed the "three points of view" since it made no sense whatsoever and since I can't find any other citations about "l'affaire Carrefour" anywhere (in French or English) besides Wikipedia.

RE: Stripped?
The language here makes perfect sense, even if it's not the best way to phrase it in this context. There are just basic metaphors. Stripped and (rock) bottom price connote the suprise of this, i assume, unheard of practice.

To be more neutral one could substitute removed and ...at substantially lower prices. aaron 15:00, 6 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Unless we find a source for this, it will have to be removed. Sounds suspiciously like an urban legend.   Sprotch 19:20, 5 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Urban legend ?
 * See : http://www.distrijob.fr/enseignes/dictionnaire.asp?enseignes=carrefour
 * http://www.emarketing.fr/Glossaire/ConsultGlossaire.asp?ID_Glossaire=6175
 * http://www.lesechos.fr/formations/marketing/articles/article_2_9.htm
 * There is also some research papers on the subject http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=103123
 * Ericd

Former operations
South Korea: E-Land sold the stores acquired from Carrefour to Samsung Tesco in 2009 (a joint venture between Samsung of South Korea and Tesco of the UK) and these are being rebranded with the homeplus brand used by the joint venture. Slovakia: These were originally to be sold to Tesco along with the stores in Czech Republic (and acquiring Tesco's 5 stores in Taiwan in part-payment), but the government refused to approve the deal and these still trade as Carrefour although may eventually be closed.

Amendments to United Kingdom Section
I have made Amendments to the United Kingdom section, as United Kingdom was spelt "United Kingdon". I have also Included information about an extra Carrefour Hypermarket in the UK which is at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley,West Midlands, during the 1980's.

How to pronounce
Carrefour supermarkets are famous in many countries. However, people pronounce this name very differently - some says "Care-four" some others say it like "Carry - for" some others just says "kafor" the sound "r" being silent. Can anyone add in the main article, how to pronounce this name correctly? SJ  June 27, 2006

Merriam Webster dictionary says ..

Pronunciation: 'ka-r&-'fur That is & is pronounced as 'a' in 'about'.

Etymology: Middle French, from Late Latin quadrifurcum, neuter of quadrifurcus having four forks, from Latin quadri- + furca fork 1 : CROSSROADS 2 : SQUARE, PLAZA 

... I pronounce it as care-four.--213.42.2.22 14:24, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * We had one around here in the US and we called it car-four. J.reed [[Image:Flag_of_the_United_States.svg|24px]] 03:31, 7 August 2006 (UTC)


 * In proper French you should say: car-re-foor (with e as in the and oo as in looping). Hope I have been helping. Amelie poulain 18:05, 7 august 2006 (GMT+1)

Thanks Amelie, so, I guess it should be pronounced as karaphuur....? correct?

I think car-four is OK. Ericd 19:54, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

In Brazil they pronounce it similiar to Khai-foor with a slight roll on the r.--74.230.147.182 (talk) 15:02, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
 * According to the BBC and Euronews, it is pronounced as "car-foo" or "car-four." I myself learned these two pronunciations. However, I am not sure if they are the correct. Since this article is written in British English, the pronunciation should reflect the prevailing form used among British English speakers. My two cents. danielkueh (talk) 03:07, 8 August 2012 (UTC)

Lackluster
Why does the second biggest retail company in the world have low quality photos and a mediocre article? J.reed 03:31, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. It's very bad. That section marked confusing shouldn't even be in the introduction. It also sounds POV but I'm not sure, cause I can't really understand it either. I made a number of improvements today, including adding an infobox, adding the corporate logo (the one used in the infobox) and updating the trading logo (the red and blue one) to include transparency. But I think I'll nominate it for cleanup anyway. - Рэд  хот  14:37, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

And ...
What's a "Hard discounter"? Nohat 18:59, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I'll fill this one, a "hard discounter" is a shop that sells the basic products at the lowest price, e.g. Lidl or Aldi DannyM 13:00, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * It should say that somewhere in the article. Nohat 04:25, 22 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Carrefour is not a hard discounter. The "Produits Libres" were probably a hard discount-like strategy before the age of hard discount. But this was 30 years ago as of today Carrefour is in no way a hard discounter. Carrefour is the leader of Hypermarkets, a concept that don't exist in the USA. I know everything is larger in the USA... Well no, the largest US supermarkets are small in comparison to a French hypermarket. Ericd 14:04, 11 September 2006 (UTC)


 * I'll clear things up. I believe "hard discounter" refers to non-clothing (soft) or food goods, though that's a guess. Furthermore, Eric, hypermarkets DO exist in the USA. Meijer and bigg's are great examples. TheListUpdater (talk) 20:25, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

Finished cleaning up!
I cleaned it up! It might be bad though because i'm a little new here.NS Zakeruga 01:25, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Continente is NOT Carrefour
Someone is redirecting Continente to Carrefour. Continente are the biggest rivals of Carrefour in Portugal and the market leader. The user that keeps redirecting Continente to Carrefour should have his account suspended. This looks too suspicious to me, looks like someone with links to Carrefour. Please correct and investigate. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Governa (talk • contribs) 20:10, 13 February 2007 (UTC).


 * I think that it is only an error: in France, Carrefour had bought "continent" (wich was a very important concurrent) in 1999. More details on french wiki: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent_%28hypermarch%C3%A9%29


 * Continente was not a Promodés subsidiary ? Ericd 17:10, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Poor language and lack of citations in the critisisms
"Carrefour has been criticized numerous times for the treatment of its workers throughout the world. For example, in Doha, Qatar, it brings in workers from developing nations, such as the Philippines, and houses them in a walled compound in which it houses its workers.."

The English here is poor at best and only two of four citations (late in the section) even work. The word Qatar also cannot be found on any of the pages that do work linked to the article. On top of that nothing about this indicates it's the policy of Carrefour as a company but reads more as a rant against capitalism. Having nothing to do with Carrefour myself, except having shopped there I do find this a bit biased and think it needs to be revisited or removed unless something more neutral can be written. I suggest cleaning this up or removing it.

It should also be noted that Carrefour's Qatar business is actually owned and operated by MAF, Carrefour's Middle East Franchise partner.

Expired Products
Under criticisms an unregistered user wrote that one store was known for selling expired items. I noted that the comment needed to be sourced. If it remains after a short time it ought be removed. Agreed? JB Evans 00:43, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Produits libres
Libre = Free But free in the sense of freedom not gratis. The packaging was mostly white, with no brand only the name of the product : Chocolate, Floor, Salt, Butter.... Thus Free means free from any brand. Ericd 19:31, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

C for Carrefour
I think there should be a section on what the carrefour symbol stands for...

Is it a C (look at the empty white space) or some kind of French thing that everyone is oblivious to?

-chewka

Yes it's a C, actually almost nobody sees it spontanously, there's even a facebook group called "Le jour où j'ai compris ce qu'était le logo Carrefour, ma vie a basculé" i.e. "The day I found out what the carrefour symbol stands for, my whole life has changed", so no, it isn't some french thing. I personnaly prefer to see it as an abstract symbol because seeing the C makes it quite ugly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.38.191.123 (talk) 19:21, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Switzerland
Carrefour has ended its seven-year presence in Switzerland by selling its 12 hypermarkets to Swiss Coop. http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/front/detail/Coop_profits_as_Carrefour_flees_Switzerland.html?siteSect=105&sid=8126239&cKey=1187719012000&ty=st —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Freeminder (talk • contribs).

Discount vs Department store
Why does "discount store" in the info box link to "department store" rather than the actual "discount store" page? Is this a reflection of different uses of the terms in the US vs Europe? I don't get the impression that Carrefour is comparable to a "department store" like macy's and saks, which are the focus of the "department store" page... but closer to a Wal-Mart supercenter, which is definitely a "discount store" Whirlingdervish (talk) 06:38, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Dubious
See "Hypermarket concept" entry at the top of this talk page. Vrac (talk) 05:22, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Spread to Romania
I read an article about Carrefour that the spread to Romania at the begining of this decade saved the company from bankruptcy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.121.67.189 (talk) 11:29, 20 September 2008 (UTC)

Check store numbers, please
Table said 5 hypermarkets in Russia but a fresh corporate press release (scroll to the bottom of page 2) says only two. Table for Thailand says 25, Carrefour website 37 (all right, the 37th just opened yesterday). Perhaps other countries are just as off mark? NVO (talk) 17:30, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

UK presence
I removed these numbers as there has been no Carrefour presence in the UK since the 1980s (not 30s as it says on the amend). I've checked the company website, news and general searches and can find no reference to any stores of any kind. Does anyone know different? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.1.121.75 (talk) 18:53, 17 January 2010 (UTC)


 * UK = caca, the French don't go là-bas. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.2.143.123 (talk) 19:16, 9 July 2010 (UTC)


 * There were about 11 Carrefour stores in the UK, I seem to remember, but you're right that they haven't had a presence here since the 1980s. There was quite a large store in Minworth in Birmingham for many years (which is now an ASDA) and I remember the napkins in their restaurant used to be printed with a map of the UK showing the location of other stores. If my memory serves me correctly there was one in Bristol, and I think one opened at Merry Hill. I think they sold their UK operations to other companies. Minworth became a Gateway for a while before ASDA took it over. This was about 1986/87, although everybody referred to the store as "Carfors" for many years afterwards. Not sure what became of the other stores. But apparently they are to make a return to the UK market as online retailer Ocado plans to sell some Carrefour products . TheRetroGuy (talk) 16:57, 27 June 2011 (UTC)
 * And actually, Carrefour was the first large hypermarket in my area of the UK. TheRetroGuy (talk) 17:01, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

The color of left arrow
It is finally blue or red? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.144.203.70 (talk) 04:00, 24 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Certainly used to be red. Interestingly I found one of their plastic bags a couple of months ago - printed with the logo - while clearing out my loft. I put a load of old teddy bears and stuff in it for the charity shop. Maybe I should have kept it. :) TheRetroGuy (talk) 17:05, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

More on the hypermarket concept
I'm being wp:bold and rewrote the history, saying that Carrefour was the first in Europe to introduce the hypermarket in 1963, in light of US chain Fred Meyer introducing one-stop shopping in 1931, and and other US chain, Meijer, introducing the modern hypermarket (department store and supermarket in a single building) in 1962, a year before Carrefour. -- azumanga (talk) 05:32, 27 July 2011 (UTC)