Where do people in France grocery shop?

Elliot est correcte! Most of the ppl shop in the chain supermarkets he mentioned. The stereotype is of ppl going to markets (e.g. open air markets), but most working ppl are very busy and do one stop shopping in supermarkets. On Sundays, many ppl still go to open air markets to buy fresh fruits and veggies. It is still possible to go to individual shops to buy particular items (patisserie for pastries, boulangerie for bread, charcuterie for fresh meats/sausage, etc.). There are also mom and pop stores that sell packaged foods and believe it or not, the prices can be double or even triple that of the supermarkets. There are even supermarkets that sell only frozen foods. Another observation: the open air vendors frequently do not want customers to handle the produce. OTOH, in supermarkets, it is often self service with the custormer weighing the produce, entering the product code and obtaining a sticker (with the name of the produce and price) to stick on the plastic bag of produce. Another observation: French ppl tend to eat much less breakfast cereal than American/Canadians/UK ppl. There are the old stand-bys: Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes and French ppl also enjoy muesli type cereals.

A lot of French people still rely on the open air markets to pick up fresh produce. For baked goods, one will always go to the boulangerie, for cheeses and wines, usually there are individual shops that sell items specific to what they need. So a Frenchman would actually never need to step food into a hypermarket, but still the younger generations do. Carrefour, Auchan, Champion, Casino, and E.Leclerc are most common and widely shopped at supermarkets in France. If one does not shop at a local market or small specialized shop, then that person would most likely be shopping at a hypermarket.

throughout the week, its most likely to be ordinary shops, and then over the weekend, markets for fresh fruit and veg :)

Where I lived, in le Nord, we shopped at Ocean (kinda like Meijer or a super Walmart- although walmart sucks). They did have markets every once in a while, but no one I know lived off the market... I don't think I've ever been to a market that would have everything you need.

Both - It greatly depends on what regions of France.

they have lagre supermarkets but there new in france most people will go to markets for fruits and veggies and a bakery for bread and desserts and a botcher for meats

did you know that people on yahoo answers mainly consists of americans? why would you ask that on this.