Note that this is rue Mouffetard in Paris. There is no lack of choice, but the French are still very addicted to queuing at their boulangerie (or butcher in this case, the bakery queue was on the other side of the street and less photogenic) for their favourite bread, which they fervently believe is better than the bread their friends buy elsewhere. At least on the weekend, for Sunday lunch...
Of course in central Paris their are no truly big supermarkets, which are out in the suburbs.
And there is a large element of fashion at play, but it's true that when the new bakery opened across the street from work, it was easy for the crowd to abandon the one around the corner because it was rather crap (and the crowd didn't even know about the rats from his flour store that came to live in the basement of one of our buildings).
