Their names are Florent, Romain, Delphine, Anthony, Tiphaine… They are responsible for the tide department, the jewelry carousel, the household appliances department, or employed on a checkout line at Leclerc in Chambly (Oise). But not only that. For several months, they have been playing a slightly more original game that has nothing to do with their core business. Behind the camera, they play roles to make their profession more human in the eyes of their clients, in rather well-oiled sketches and parodies.
Like its counterpart in Pont-l’Abbé (Finistère) which is a hit on social networks, the Leclerc store in Chambly has chosen to play the humor card to refresh its image. An idea imagined by Johanna Farman Farmaian, who went from simple owner of the Subway in the shopping mall to digital communications manager for the hypermarket in the Hauts Vents area. “I have always been creativeshe smiled. My husband has a communication box, he integrated me into it a little and I got into the game little by little. He suggested to me the idea of approaching Leclerc to take care of their communication. The Parentheses area (in Persian, editor’s note) is very competitive, and no communication was made here.»
Breaking the image of mass distribution
On the table, Johanna put forward arguments that struck a chord with management. “We have a lot of competitors in the areashe explains. And today, we no longer have the right to distribute leaflets in mailboxes. The link is cut with our customers. We can only go through social networks.» To reach young people, Johanna chose humor. “I wanted to break the image of mass distribution, where we see employees as robots working in a large factory.she continues. My goal was to put humans back in the spotlight.»
A year and a half after starting the project, Johanna now has her little troupe, made up of around ten employees, always volunteers when it comes to appearing in front of the camera. “It’s a real theater workshop when we’re filming, a real bubble of good humor, we have a lot of fun», she smiles. Even if the beginnings were not easy (being an actor is a job!), everyone has made a lot of progress in the art of comedy. One of them even stood out from the crowd. “Florent is twenty-three years old, it’s an original. He’s come back to life since he made these videos, and the community loves him!»
“We haven’t seen you on the videos this week!”
Having become the darling of the store, Florent is notably the star of the most viewed video – more than a million times on Facebook – where he plays the role of Josiane Pichet, a forest dance teacher. If this video rode a trend, others are more related to mass distribution. One caricatures (or not) the customers who disrupt everything on the shelves, while others praise products in a humorous way. But the success is always the same. “Sometimes customers tell us “Hey we haven’t seen you on the videos this week”», smiles Delphine, responsible for the tide department.
With 278 videos published in a year and a half, the store’s Facebook page grew from 3,000 to 11,600 followers, while the Instagram account gained 6,700. There will also be a focus on TikTok in the coming months. In total, the account has 3.2 million views in 2024 and 3.6 million on Instagram. Against 100,000 leaflets distributed previously, the bet is rather successful.
To help her in her task, Johanna is now helped by Romain. On a fixed-term contract in the bookstore department, the young man with a passion for theater joined the communications team in October to share his ideas and his sense of acting. In 2025, the objective will be to reach 10,000 subscribers on Instagram, continue progress on Facebook, and continue to show that mass retail employees are not just shelf fillers.
