If you’re an American used to shopping at Wal-mart, like me, trying to find what you’re looking for in Europe can be like looking for a possum in the backseat of a Mercedes.

If you’re looking for household chemicals, baking supplies, good deals, or American cravings, you’ve come to the right place.
First of all, if you want a shopping cart, you can’t just go get one (and leave it in the parking space next to you when you drive  off).  European shopping carts (and many Canadian ones, for that matter, and carts at the airport) require a deposit.  Most carts take 50 cent pieces, 1 Euro coins, and 2 Euro coins.  You stick the coin in the slot, and then you can pull the metal bar out the back.  When you’re done shopping, pop the bar back in, and your coin pops out.   You can find plastic or metal tokens (I think Carrefour has plastic disks) that you can use instead of a coin.

Most medicinal items, even over the counter stuff, will be found at the pharmacy.  Which is a pain in the butt, because you have to ask someone to get it for you.  If your French isn’t great, it helps if you have the old package that you’ve used up.  Some things you can only get at the pharmacy:

-Prescription drugs
-Cold medicine
-Headache/fever tablets: ibuprofen, advil, aspirin, tylenol, etc.
-Vicks vaporub
-Hydrocortizone cream
-Eye drops
-Pepto Bismo and other stomach remedies
-Motion sickness pills

However, you can find a few over the counter things while you do your regular grocery shopping:

-cough drops: they’re in the candy aisle.  Menthal-Eucalyptus ones, weird green cover, but they work well, and are cheap.
-herbal remedies – you may only find this at large stores, like Hyper U
-vitamins and minerals – ditto the herbal rememdies
-hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), rubbing alcohol and bandages – little bottles of peroxide and alcohol are at Hyper U next to the herbal remedies for 1 Euro a piece.  Quite steep, but hey, it’s Europe!

When it comes to household cleaners and other chemicals, most can be found at your grocery store (even cheap ones like Aldi, Leader Price and Lidl).
-bleach is at the grocery store (unlike in Germany, where you have to go to Schlecker or another drogerie).  It’s called “javel”.
-toilet bowl cleaner (look for the ubiquitous “WC” on anything related to bathrooms in Europe, in any language) is in the same area, or around toilet paper, dish soap and laundry detergent.
-glass cleaner, sponges, rags are common everywhere, and a further assortment of cleaning supplies and brushes that would dazzle the best German housewife can be found in larger stores.

In France, “sweet” flavorings like cinnamon, vanilla, nuts, chocolate chips and ginger are usually found together with the baking supplies – flour, sugar and cake mix.
So far I have only found white flour “harine de ble” and “bread mix”.  The bread mix has white and/or whole wheat flour with salt, yeast, and for some reason baking powder! added already.  I want to just get regular whole wheat or rye, but I’m not sure where it is.  There is a “ble noir” which is buckwheat (I hear they use it here for the savory crepes).
Sucre en poudre sounds like powdered sugar.  BUT it is regular white crystal sugar.  “Sucre glace” is icing sugar, powdered sugar, confectioner’s sugar.
Baking powder (levure chemique or “chemical yeast”) is in little envelopes…like we get some yeast in in the US.  In the same little envelopes you can find yeast (levure de boulangerie or “bakery yeast”), and vanilla sugar.
Corn starch and baking soda (in a blue box here) are found in a completely different area, where you find soup, noodles, bouillon and sauce mixes.  Don’t ask me why.
You find “savory” flavorings like herbs de provence, sage, paprika, chili powder, salt and pepper with the condiments – ketchup, mustard and so on.  In some stores you can get soy sauce, Maggi, Tabasco, or Worcestershire here, too (I’ve seen all of these together at CarreFour).

Eggs, like in Germany, are ALWAYS brown and NEVER refrigerated.  Weird, isn’t it?  They are stamped with the date (and a number which apparently you can use to look up the farm, raising conditions, etc.)  The French give you a choice between the English system dozen eggs, or the metric 10, so pay attention when comparing prices.  You can also buy eggs in flats of 20 or 30 at a time, which usually gives you the best price.

Gallon jugs of milk are unheard of.  Most of the milk (and what most people buy) is UHT (ultra high temperature) or ultra-pasteurized, in 1 liter rectangular tetrapack boxes (they look like the rice dream packages) or plastic bottles.  Meaning it doesn’t have to be refrigerated until you open it (it will get sour after you open it, but it takes a while).  Which is weird and gross and terribly unhealthy sounding.  It tastes awful, and I’ve quit drinking milk while I’m in Europe (same thing going on in Germany).  There is “fresh” pasteurized milk, in the refrigerator section, but it’s quite a bit more and harder to find.  Smaller stores might not have it at all.

Hot dogs, frankfurters or weiners – I have found a very acceptable substitute, Strausbourg sausages on pain au lait tastes just like American hot dogs (if you’re into that. haha).

Peanut butter can often be found next to the honey, jam, and thousands of jars of nutella or other hazlenut cream.  Carrefour carries a generic-looking brand that I haven’t tried, and HyperU and some others have Skippy.  A great substitute and change in flavor is Speculoos cream.  Speculoos are those Dutch almond windmill cookies (you can get them in Germany around Christmas(spekulatius), but in France, they are always around in Netto) with cinnamon flavor.  The spread tastes just like them. Yum!

Cheetos – I have (sadly) never found real Cheetos in France, and I miss the harsh orange color and the fake cheese flavor.  Haha. I know, I’m a hypocrite.  But that’s what I crave.  There are, however, rather nice gourmet emmentaler, goat cheese and pepper, and several other flavors of “flips” or “souffles”  available, as well as the peculiar peanut ones (which my husband grew up with in Germany, and loves).  Not peanut butter. They’re not sweet, but salty.  Peanut flips are incredibly cheap (a decent sized bag at Leader Price is 33 cents, and tastes great).  But not the same as the cheese ones, if that’s what you grew up with.

Doritos can be found at HyperU in many different flavors.  Look in the alcohol and snacks aisle.  You can also find Tuc crackers (like Ritz or Townhouse), Bugles, pretzels, peanuts, olives, and other savory snack foods around the alcohol in most stores.

Random British (and sometimes American) items like oatmeal, ale, tea, and sauces, can be found in a special section of larger stores, next to Mexican, Oriental, and Italian foods.  Similar to the “ethnic foods” section in an American store.  Most of these things are in other places, too, but it’s a convenient place to find all your favorites.

Places to get cheap stuff:

Things in Europe can be outrageously expensive, especially if you’re converting US dollars to Euros.  A few places to find good deals:

Leader Price’s store brand flour, eggs, sugar, and other basics are about the cheapest you can buy.  And they are similar in quality to other brands.  Some Leader Price brand items – soda, and cheese, for instance, are dirt cheap, but don’t taste quite as good.  And be careful there, I have bought rotten cheese and veggies from time to time, not realizing that they don’t check everything. Leader price, Intermarche and Hyper U often have fantastic deals on meat.

Emmaus is a fantastic second-hand store, with prices similar to Salvation Army or Goodwill in the States.  They are charitible, helping with many different causes.

We have an Ecoworld in a nearby town.  I don’t know if it’s a chain, or just a local thing.  But they have some good deals, very similar to dollar stores in the States.  They are also several independent bargain stores around that remind me of truckload sales in the states. Prices vary, but there are some nice deals.

These are the cheap everyday things to buy…of course for the best food there are specialty shops, markets, and so on, but if you’re in the category of ex-pat I am, you can’t afford all that.  I’ll write another article about those special shopping things another time.

I hope this helped you, and if you are looking for any specific things, or just want general information about everyday shopping in France, send me a comment below!