Gaétan Frigon

"During the years that followed, Alain Bouchard opened Perrette stores at lightning speed. As soon as a suitable location was found for a franchise, he was given two weeks to design the store, paint it, install coolers, shelves and counters and arrange merchandise. Nothing could get in the way of him attending opening day for each store, which always took place on a weekend. “I loved that moment. You could feel the excitement of everyone waiting outside before the doors opened.” The energy was that much higher when Perrette promised a complimentary milk jug to the first 500 clients and granted specials on other products, to promote the full range of their offerings. The company grew so quickly that Perrette often opened new stores before it had even found managers to run them. It was Alain who was given the job in the interim, but never for long, since he was the sole specialist when it came to openings. The supermarkets watched the growth of the blue-and-white-signed stores with a mixture of astonishment and amusement. “Everyone was laughing at them,” said Gaétan Frigon, who headed a number of grocery store chains in Quebec over the decades. “It was a company that wanted to sell milk, period.” To his mind, Perrette stores were marginally more menacing than the small corner grocers that had developed anarchically, transforming the living rooms of their apartments into stores."