In praise of Carrefour: Carrefour is shopping heaven! Great value, quality and so much variety.

I live on Gran Canaria, which is a pretty small island and there are four huge Carrefour stores. They really give Alcampo, Mercadona and Hipercor a run for their money. If Carrefour opened at home it would sort the Irish supermarket rip-off merchants out in no time! – Aisling

When Quinnsworth were for sale, I really hoped that Carrefour would buy them – I think it would have been far better for Ireland in so many ways if a continental European retailer was setting the pace, rather than a UK retailer. – Aengus

On complaining: Is there anything good about this country? Everyone moans about everything. Could someone please tell me where this Utopian country is where everything is cheap, no one pays tax, the health service is perfect the jails are empty? You can all pick one thing or other that's better in other countries than here when on holiday, but if you lived in these places you'd find they're not as good as you thought when on holidays. Why are the French always on strike if they live in a great country? – Alan