GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN FRANCE: How has it affected development?

The policy pursued by the French government over the years in relation to the development of various types of retailing can be compared to driving a car; it is an alternating series of accelerating and braking actions according to external circumstances. From 1960 to 1972 it was largely the accelerator, but since then the brake has been more strongly applied. Jean Fries describes how this policy has affected French retailing, and in particular the growth of large‐scale units such as shopping centres and hypermarkets. This is a slightly condensed version of a paper presented at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute conference in Zurich last September (see RDM, September/October, page 7).