9 Jul 2018

GOODBYE CARREFOUR WELCOME BIX

Many of you know the Supermarket Carrefour, created in France as a shop (not hypermarket) in 1960. It expended in many cities and starts its internationalization  in 1969 in Belgium together with a strategic alliance of the GB Group. Between 1970 and 2000 several formats work with multiple brands and names. In 2000, the Carrefour Group takes over GB and Carrefour Belgium, In 2007 it officially becomes Carrefour Belgium

Unfortuntely in February 2010 Carrefour announced the elimination of 1,672 jobs and the closure of 21 stores and the possibility of acquisition of 20 stores by the group Mestdagh.

Our Carrefour in Waterloo  survived until end 2017 when suddenly huge changes were announced. Carrefour became "Bix" a project which includes the construction of a new building on the parking area, which is now closed to cars: it will accommodate a Brico Plan-It (more than 13,000 m² ), which will replace the Brico currently located in the city center.

The car pole, Auto 5 is already there as well as the car wash. "On the new part of the Brico Plan-It, the transition between city and countryside will be highlighted by a green roof that will join the gently sloping fields: the new constructions seek to integrate into the landscape and historical environment.

In terms of mobility, the new facilities will give room for pedestrians and two-wheelers and the total capacity of the car park will be increased to more than 1,400 places, by the construction of two levels of parking in the basement.







I had seen all the digging and suffered the redirections caused by this huge construction site.

From all people I asked nobody knew really how it would be. So I went there and took pictures. The works were quite advanced, it probably will be finished in 2 months or maybe less, that's what they say, but I think it will last more than less !



The only building which is finished and already in use is Auto 5 which repairs cars !



The plan looks like this, I think it will be a nice place to walk around in winter or when it rains. Carrefour will become a "mall" called Bix.



And this is the finished dream of the architects ! I wonder when I can see that in reality !

What a change to my good old Waterloo, where only little shops existed, and which was surrounded by fields and farms and I think there were more cows than people at that time ! But we have to go with the time ! At least I had the privilege  to live for more than 30 years really on the countryside.




More about Carrefour's history here






more participants here

7 comments:

  1. You turn around and things have changed. And so fast as well nowadays!

    By the way, I use two different devices to comments. If I do so on my home computer you will see my blog name, if I do so on my smart phone, you will not. Just so you know!!

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  2. It's sad all this construction. I prefer the countryside to the city. Green spaces make me happy.

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  3. I feel so sad when new "improved" shopping places come. Here in the USA most of our small shops are now gone and people either go to big malls r they shop online. I miss those little shops and the unhurried pace of life.

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  4. A lot of the big box stores as we call them do not represent an improvement. This looks like some of that.

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  5. Areas around here are developed more and more. I hope they won’t push too hard but it has changed significantly over time for sure.

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  6. As you cynically suggest, when does a building ever look as good as an architect's drawings? But as you also say, we move on.

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  7. Thing are always changing. But at what rate. Our town moves and changes at slower rate.
    Coffee is on

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