Skip the “Hello!” » and “Bye, thank you!” “. This is the price to pay for this food store open every day of the week, from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., with all the products of the day, in a town of 550 inhabitants that was no longer waiting for the opening of a business. In the city center of Sainte-Sévère (Charente), the Api minimarket has been operating on a self-service basis since its inauguration in March 2023.
To enter the long mobile home Lined with wood, on the edge of the main road, customers slide the QR code that appears on their smartphone under a reader. Once the purchase is complete, they identify themselves again using the square barcode and then scan their purchases at the self-checkout, before paying with a credit card and leaving. Eighty people, on average, comply with digital restrictions daily in this rural commune with an aging population. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s not complicated!”Joëlle Fouchereau, a septuagenarian retiree with octagonal glasses and short hair, would almost be offended. For once there is a concept that is sustained in rural areas…”
The former construction executive who once traveled around France by car “it feels less” to drive, from now on, then this “little shed” makes your life easier: “There is everything you need to cook a common family dish. I send my husband there, he finds what I ask for more easily. Because something is always missing at home. Someone falls on their back for the aperitif, one word asks for another, they stay to eat… And as for the prices, nothing to say here, I found boxes of apricots at 8 euros for 5 kilos for my jams. Whoever came up with this, frankly, I take my hat off! »
In fact, the “thing” seems carefully thought out, concentrating on 40 square meters, at supermarket prices, most of what the French usually buy for food, home, animals and hygiene. Result of this summary of our consumption in 700 references? A generous section of sweets – chocolate cake, Coca-Cola and frozen pizzas for a battalion of teenagers, abundant aperitif starters for their parents, and lots of cold cuts and meats since, at some point, you have to get down to business. things and on the table. Without forgetting these other essentials such as condoms, corkscrews (there is a lack of alcohol to comply with the legislation on night sales and minors), printer paper, cat treat sticks and barbecue charcoal.
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