Wednesday 18 May 2011

Ici et là - The bottle shop

'Here & There' is a Wednesday series dedicated to shops. The 'here' is the area around Paddington. The 'there' is generally La Rive Gauche de Paris, especially the single-digit arrondissements. I am interested in how people live, not in retailing per se.

Oxford Street, East Sydney (Adult shop next door is a clue to this location)
In Sydney, bottled alcohol is sold in stand-alone bottle shops, bottle sections within large supermarkets, or bottle shops attached to hotels. Our hotels are similar to English pubs.


Cellar, Rue Bourgogne, 7eme, Paris
In Paris, bottled alcohol is sold through bottle shops called 'caves' which translates as 'cellar'. I think their equivalent of our pub/hotel, is the neighbourhood bar/cafe, although I do not think many bottles are sold through bars for take home consumption. Yeah, yeah, the car is what is known in the trade as 'an added bonus'.

Ocean Street, Woollahra
Nomenclature is interesting here. We call them bottle shops. We call them grog shops. And we also call them a bottle-o. There are a few chains of very large warehouse-size bottle shops, but these are usually owned by either of the two large supermarket chains.

Oxford Street, East Sydney

16 comments:

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Hi Julie,
Well I was going to have an early night tonight, sleep deprivation catches up eventually, too many late nights and 5am starts. I clicked onto your 'Plumbing the Deeps' and 'a pied dans les rues de Paris' and here I am nearly an hour later just in awe of both your ability to capture so much in your lens and your words.. well what can I say. Your account of your last days with your Dad made me cry, your pictures of Paris made me green with envy. I'm just very happy to be able everyday to enjoy a little bit of your outlook on life.
Best wishes
Grace

Kay L. Davies said...

My comment is almost the same as PerthDaily Grace's, except it is morning here and I haven't breakfasted yet, having been sidetracked by your blogs. I should learn not to turn the computer on until I've eaten. However, I'm not very bright, so...
Luv — K

Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

Unknown said...

In Pearl, Mississippi places to buy bottled alcohol are mostly illegal, and there are no real bars or pubs... in jackson, Mississippi (3-5miles away) Places to buy bottled alcohol are called liquor stores, and there are a few places that could be called pubs, and one real pub.

Christina Klas said...

Wow. There is so much going on in the first store that it's difficult to focus on one thing which they are trying to sell! Hard to miss this store as you go your way though I'm sure.

Oakland Daily Photo said...

What in the world is Evil Bitch?

freefalling said...

Why such disdain for cute little clichéd cars?

Julie said...

Did it come across as disdain? I did not mean it to. I nearly ran with the French image as lead, because the car is immensely attractive and 'makes' the image - transforms it. However, this is not a blog about Paris (although one could be forgiven for thinking otherwise). The story was meant to be about Sydney ... oops. Unintended consequences.

And I have no idea what 'Evil Bitch' is, but am impressed that Oakland Daily read the signs! My guess is that EB is strong on alcohol and light on subtlety.

Julie said...

Grace & Kay - Thank you for you kind words. I am trying to 'push' each of my blogs into a position where the 'story' is paramount and the image is part of the story, ie, improve the quality of the text.

brattcat said...

I feel a sudden urge to go back down to the kitchen and pour a glass of wine.

Jim said...

Great post. Good collection of bottle-os.
Sydney - City and Suburbs

Ann said...

The car is the best bit.

Serline said...

Whatever the name, I'm keeping my hubby away... there's a bit of alcoholic streak running through his family ;-P

Joan Elizabeth said...

Interestig comparison. I love the look of the French shop,

Joe said...

The little car outside one of the bottle shops is terrific. Why is it that bottle shops always look so transient?

Stafford Ray said...

I noted the honesty of the signage at the last of the shops (Moet $55). In the first it would have read 'Moet $54.99'.
A few years ago I bought six items in just such a shop and at the cehck out was charged the rounded up figure for each itemn separately, ie I was overcharged six cents.
I complained that if the price was really as charged then his signs were misleading. I got a mouthfull for my trouble and left without the goods. I am such a pest!

Julie said...

Good for you, Stafford. As we are finding out with the roll-out of many government programmes, there are a lot of 'shonks' in Australian small business.