French Baguettes From a Vending Machine? ‘What a Tragedy.’

Traditional mom-and-pop bakeries in rural areas are disappearing quickly — sometimes at a rate of four percent in a single year.
"LA CHAPELLE-EN-JUGER, France — The lights inside the village bakery used to come on before dawn, an hour or so before the smell of baking bread would waft into neighbors’ homes. The storefront door would soon be heard, opening and closing, the rhythm as predictable as the life stirring awake across the French countryside. But everything changes. 'Without bread, there is no more life,' said Gérard Vigot, standing in his driveway across the street from the now shuttered bakery. 'This is a dead village.' Two years ago, the 650 residents of La Chapelle-en-Juger lost their bakery, the last local business where they could meet one another, chitchat and gossip while waiting in line for their daily baguette or their weekend éclairs. For the community, the closing of the bakery was 'un drame,' as one newspaper put it, or a tragedy, one that is being repeated in countless French villages. ..."
NY Times

When the bakery closed in Landelles-et-Coupigny, residents started shopping elsewhere. So the butcher shop next door also closed.