And can the fashionable French store survive some of the stiffest competition in American retailing?

"As a French store, we are going to be different from the merchandise we sell to the currency exchange service we have."

He happens to be a consultant for Resonances, a chain of French stores, and this is one of its latest and most successful products.

Tesco's having to slash priced to compete with French stores.

Thanks to the English invasion, this French store has become the biggest seller of beer in the whole country.

In 1995, the company added its 45th French store, while a second Spanish store, in Barcelona was opened in 1996.

Supply problems quickly affected French stores which lacked most items.

The only one of them represented in the French store is Ms. Herrera.

French stores have never been particularly noted for their embrace of shop-front theater.

"I fell in love with the French stores, the way they decorate, which is a way of layering old and new," Ms. Kelley said.