Further research on my part probably would have informed me of some of the following, but to be honest, I mostly had focused on the many amazing sights Paris has to offer.
We have been able to go to a 'large' chain style store that offers cosmetics and some clothing, as well as the largest selection of food that we've been able to find so far. The selection is much more limited than an American grocery store, and frankly, I think even Corning's small Sav-Mart could put them out of business. (Before you start grumbling, yes, I am aware that most Parisians in this part of the city shop for a day or two at a time and that eating out is far more popular. However, old habits die hard, and everything is so darn expensive at restaurants around here.)
The street level has big garage door style doors (fairly standard around here) and you take an escalator down to the store, so it's all underground. Don't forget to bring your own bags or you'll have to buy some.
I think the most unusual difference is that they don't refrigerate dairy as cold as we do. We found the eggs on a shelf near the chips, and the milk was cool, but not cold. Additionally, open mayo is regularly left on cafe tables, like our ketchup. (By the way, squeeze style red bottle are still ketchup, but yellow bottles are not mustard, it's mayo. We're big mustard fans, and had to spend some time scraping globs of warm mayo off the first time we used the bottles.)
Popular yogurt flavors include Rhubarb, Prunes, and Fig, but I went with the familiar strawberry.
The produce section was an interesting adventure. Cherries from the US (the only selection available, one variety only) were $19.84 per LB!!! Strawberries were shockingly small and made California's "look like doping fiends", as described by our American team member.
Sliced meats inundate the meat section, but are more like smoked prosciutto than deli meat. They had an entire Pate section in the 'deli' counter, and Foie Gras was everywhere!
The ethnic food section was nothing like ours, they had a small section of Indian ingredients and that was where peanut butter was. We saw jars of Skippy brand (the only we saw) that were about half size of 'regular' jars, but were priced around $7. The Mexican food was disappointing, with just a couple of tortilla sizes and teeny jars of salsa, but EL PASO brand did make it over here, with the hard taco shells.
Mostly for fun, we picked up a set of Lays' snack size potato chips that had 3 flavors. BBQ, Bolognaise, and Chicken. (We passed on the Ketchup flavor.) The bolognaise tasted kind of like bolognaise, so think tomato-y. The chicken had an intense flavor that reminded us of a concentrated top ramen flavor packet. The BBQ also seemed to have a slightly different flavor than home.
My absolute favorite part of the store is the bread! Yes, they do have packaged and sliced bread, but they bake fresh bread four times a day and it smells incredible! They also have beautiful tiny pastries, in addition to loaves and rolls.
Oh, in this grocery store, you have to insert a Euro coin to release a shopping cart, and you get your coin back when you return the cart. That was fun, the three of us had to ask for help, and then we realized it was like the rental carts at the airport. (I didn't really understand this, because the store is underground and you are prohibited from taking them into the disabled patron elevator, so theft seems unlikely.) The plastic hand baskets have an extendable handle, like a luggage handle, so you roll it along behind you. I thought that was brilliant lol.
A quote from Marge Simpson echoed in our minds as we shopped, and I'll leave it in closing,
'Remember, an elevator is called a lift, a mile is called a kilometer and botulism is called "steak and kidney pie".'
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