The supermarket in St Jean is the largest on the island and most closely represents the large markets found in Europe or the US, well-stocked with a large variety of products. You are most likely to find all your staples here, from fresh fruit and vegetables to meat, frozen foods, cookies, crackers, chocolate and candy, cheese, milk and other dairy products, cold cuts, assorted organic products, and baby items (diapers, cotton, jars of baby food), cleaning products, wines and spirits, water, soda, fruit juice, personal hygiene and para-pharmacy, as well as cigarettes and a selection of French and English-language newspapers and magazines.
Depending on how much cooking you plan to do, you can easily complete your shopping at one of the smaller neighborhood grocers, which stock many essentials as well as out-of-the-ordinary items, especially local specialties, and each owner orders according to his or her personal tastes. The smaller shops are just the place to find regional fruits and vegetables, or perhaps buy some meat from a “cabri” (the small local goats that graze on the island’s hillsides) for a curry or fricassee.
To buy fresh local fish, the best thing is to get up early in the morning and go to the fish market near the entry to Gustavia, across from the pharmacy, between 6am and noon. The island’s fishermen sell their fish to individuals here and it doesn’t come any fresher than this. According to the season, they might have lobsters, mahi-mahi, wahoo, or tuna, which you can purchase whole or in slices or filets, with or without the skin. In Lorient, just before the large hill that goes toward Camaruche, fishermen have a small stand where they sell lobster and fresh local fish of all sorts for a few hours after they come back from their day’s fishing.
Le Cellier du gouverneur
Our Wine and Liquor store is located on the waterfront in Gustavia, St. Barths.
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