épicerie

English translation: non-perishables

14:03 Mar 25, 2011

French to English translations [Non-PRO]
Food & Drink

French term or phrase: épicerie

épicerie - oil, pasta, biscuits etc (definition can include coffee, tea)

"Les produits d’épicerie (huile, pâtes et biscuits) sont principalement achetés en GMS..."

This is a category of food products, like milk products or meat & fish. The report talks about the percentage of purchases for each category.

Thanks!!

michellekb KudoZ activity Questions: 21 (none open) (3 closed without grading) Answers: 1
Local time: 01:44

English translation:non-perishables

Explanation:
Once again, French has a word for which we have no exact equivalent. 'Grocery' meaning non-dairy, non-meat, non-seafood, non-fresh produce food items may be the jargon in the supermarket trade, but this will not be understood by lay readers (who, if they consult a dictionary, will learn that groceries are "items of food sold in a grocer's shop or supermarket").
So, consider how a consumer would classify the stock of edibles in his pantry for the purposes of disaster preparedness. This word comes to mind. It may not be exact, but it's close enough.

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Note added at 1 day17 hrs (2011-03-27 07:03:36 GMT)
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It's hard to find definitions of 'épicerie' that match the way the word is used in the Asker's text -- including oil, pasta and biscuits but excluding dairy, meat and fish -- but this one seems to fit:
"ensemble des aliments de consommation courant qui se conservent". Does "without refrigeration" go without saying?

Selected response from:

rkillings
United States
Local time: 16:44

Grading comment

thanks. while grocery is close, I think this descriptive approach corresponds best to the requirements.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +6

grocery

gwendoline soleau (X)

3 +1

grocery

Noni Gilbert Riley

non-perishables

rkillings

4 -3

greengrocer's shop

Isabelle Barth-O'Neill

Discussion entries: 14

michellekb

ASKER

10:01 Mar 28, 2011

@Tony M

Just to clarify - I did use your technical term but put the response I selected as the best in parentheses since the term even in French required clarification for professionals.

michellekb

ASKER

14:43 Mar 25, 2011

@Tony M
OK. Thanks again. from your first answer, I wasn't clear that you were using grocery as a sub-category like Dairy/Meat/Fruit & Veg.

Tony M

France

@ Michelle

14:38 Mar 25, 2011

As I said, the correct technical term used in the trade is 'grocery'; other terms suggested are by and large sub-sets of this umbrella group, or not appropriate as trade technical jargon.

If you do a little bit of basic googling for (e.g.) job ads, you'll soon see the specific distinction that is made between this product group and the others.

michellekb

ASKER

14:34 Mar 25, 2011

@tony m
thanks. I think that épicerie is short here for épicerie sèche. what do you think of canned and processed foods suggested (thanks) by natasha?

Tony M

France

'grocery'

14:31 Mar 25, 2011

My friend used to work for Waitrose, and 'grocery' was the name of the section of which he was Manager — obviously, this is the professional jargon term, not the term used for customers.

Some catering trade suppliers over here use the term 'épicerie sèche' to cover all these goods (even including oils etc.) that do not need refrigeration (room temperature storage, cf. 'store cupboard ingredients')

michellekb

ASKER

14:30 Mar 25, 2011

@noni
thanks for the suggestion of dry goods. unfortunately it is also a general category of consumer goods including non-food items (mainly textiles)... the waitrose tip is a good one to follow. thanks

Noni Gilbert Riley

Spain

@Natasha and Brigitte

14:24 Mar 25, 2011

I had thought about dry goods too (dry foods makes me think of dog biscuits!); but oil and paté hardly fit into that category. On Waitrose's website, they have "Cupboard" as a subsection of their Groceries section (as opposed to Fruit and Veg, Fridge and Freezer).

Natasha Dupuy

France

canned and processed foods?

14:22 Mar 25, 2011

Just dropping another clue here as I don't actually have time to look for the proper time, but hoping this can help

Natasha Dupuy

France

agree with Brigitte

14:19 Mar 25, 2011

groceries is too broad here. They seem to be referring to non-fresh food products

michellekb

ASKER

another sentence in which the term is found

14:14 Mar 25, 2011

les ventes des produits d’épicerie et des fruits et légumes frais qui représentent 18% et 17% des ventes totales. Les produits laitiers représentent 12% des ventes et sont suivis de près par les produits finis de boulangerie avec 11%.

michellekb

ASKER

14:10 Mar 25, 2011

Thanks. I wanted feedback from people in this specific field. Using the general term groceries in the context of specific categories of... groceries seemed a bit risky.

BrigitteHilgner

Austria

Strange combination

14:10 Mar 25, 2011

One would need a precise definition to come up with a reliable translation. I get the impression that "groceries" as a whole are not meant. Maybe dry food might work (but oil won't fit). Whose definition is this? What's the context? What other categories of food are there?

Noni Gilbert Riley

Spain

@jlsjr

14:08 Mar 25, 2011

Quite (see below)!

Jean-Louis S.

United States

Grocery products

14:05 Mar 25, 2011

What 's wrong with that?

Answers

2 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +6

grocery

Explanation:
Grocery store (for US) and grocer's shop (for UK)

gwendoline soleau (X)
Local time: 01:44
Native speaker of:

German

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): -3

greengrocer's shop

Explanation:
c'est je pense le plus utilisé
On dit aussi : the grocer's

Isabelle Barth-O'Neill
Local time: 00:44
Works in field
Native speaker of:

French

4 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

grocery

Explanation:
The other products you have mentioned so far (although we would really need to know all of the other products and their categories) are not strictly speaking grocery products, although they might be available in a larger grocer's (and I have to admit I am casting my mind back some years now, since all of this is probably really a question of supermarket sections these days).

Milk and etc bought from the dairy. Meat from the butcher's, fish from the fishmonger's. Oh, those were the days.

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Note added at 24 mins (2011-03-25 14:27:47 GMT)
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"Store cupboard products" might work, to be more specific. It had come to mind and this website certainly seems to agree with me...
http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/category/groceries-and-ever...

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Note added at 37 mins (2011-03-25 14:40:39 GMT)
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Ah. Michelle's comments above mean that I've been a bit off track. And, as Tony says, we need to look at it from the trade point of view rather than the customer angle.

Noni Gilbert Riley
Spain
Local time: 01:44
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English

1 day 8 hrs confidence:

non-perishables

rkillings
United States
Local time: 16:44
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 11

Grading comment

thanks. while grocery is close, I think this descriptive approach corresponds best to the requirements.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

neutral

AllegroTrans: your definition is too narrow - many "groceries" are perishables (e.g. milk), albeit not as perishable as meat for ex.

36 mins

-> I'll concede that UHT milk is a non-perishable "grocery" item. Tinned and powdered dairy products as well. :-)

neutral

Tony M: But in Asker's specific context, it is clear that technical retailing jargon is exactly what is called for, this document is clearly not intended for a lay readership. 'GMS'??? (I think the parenthesis is just for clarification)

18 hrs

-> If the context *called* for retailing jargon, why did the writer feel it necessary to include a parenthesis illustrating the jargon meaning of 'épicerie'? That suggests a readership that might not know this meaning.

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English translation: non-perishables

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