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Emile Zola claims in his novel Au bonheur des dames that the presence of department stores in the neighbourhood doomed the small shops. However, this proposition is refuted by the fact that the grand magasin could bring new trade into a neighbourhood. In his 1936 novel Mort à crédit, Louis-Ferdinand Céline depicts the life of the small shopkeepers of Paris. Petit commerçants view customers as enemies, feared and exploited in equal measure. Céline also paints a picture of status-consciousness and awareness of respectable shopping practice and uses characters who are afflicted by the effects of the decay in small business.

The economic crisis of the 1890s forced France's small shopkeepers to organise a powerful lobby in order to defend their interests. During the period, age-old tensions intensified among trade, the marketplace, and, increasingly, shops. Aside from the strong competition from big department stores, small business owners were beleaguered by the continuing depradations of urban development. Small shops would eventually regain their place at the heart of the community, as reflected in Pierre MacOrlan's 1925 collection of poems entitled Boutiques in Poèmes documentaires. Jean Dutourd's 1952 satirical novel Au Bon Beurre provides evidence of the persistent presence of small shops in France. Dutourd depicts the history of a small shop during the Nazi Occupation of France and highlights the reversal of power relations between customers and shopkeepers. He also chronicles the corruption of small business under the Occupation.

Aside from department stores, some groups of small shopkeepers offered an alternative to unattractive little shops in France. These shopkeepers assembled in arcades and provided a more congenial environment to attract customers, becoming an important forerunner of the department store as well as the modern shopping mall. Napoléon I's liberalisation of the laws governing commerce led to the appearance of new stores in the early years of the nineteenth century, offering other forms of shopping before the department stores became the target of resentment by small shops. These innovations bear witness to sales and marketing strategies that Honoré de Balzac highlights in his 1844 novella Gaudissart II. Balzac also gives centre stage to the sale of a piece of merchandise, which he considers a key drama in human interactions, and demonstrates the techniques in customer relations in action.