Motto: "We live in Romania, and that is a full-time job" - Mircea Badea, TV journalist

I am in Carrefour Baneasa on a Friday morning. This is one of the places where France teaches Romania what retail business at western standards is all about.

There are few shoppers around; most people are at work, and those that can afford not to work are still in bed.

Even so, it is difficult to take a product from the shelves, as shop assistants arrange the merchandise now, instead of having done that in the night shift. Or maybe this is a Carrefour standard to be abided by in France only.

Guys in black suits walk around looking very much like the staff organizing a convention of the ruling party. They do not have walky-talkies, but wear badges instead. I always wondered what the job they are supposed to perform was, but never found an answer.

I also did not manage to understand what the droves of young employees are doing to earn their salaries, as never were they able to give me a competent answer to such questions as: where could I find out the type of batteries a flash-light I bought was running on.

Some of these young employees looked like they were not to be bothered from their conversation on their mobile phones, while others were eager to help but unable to, just the same.

At the stand selling sausages and salamis I get a ticket for standing in line, from a recently automated device. I get number 60, as customer number 52 is being served. And yet only two other people stand in line behind him. Where are the other six customers, I ask? Oh, the machine does not really work, I am told.

The two bottle-blondes behind the counter are as merry as they can come to be. One is having her own godmother as a customer, while the other is shocked into admiration finding out that the other two customers want something special, in the upper