The authors study “traditional” hypermarket counters as places of mediation. Two of them have been chosen for their double asymmetry: the “fresh fish” counter, which sells the exclusivity of its products that are not highly processed, and the “pork butcher and delicatessen” counter, whose products—processed and standardized—are in competition with the packaged products available in self-service areas. Observation of interactions between salesmen and customers complemented with interviews made in about ten hypermarkets both in provincial towns and in the suburbs of Paris shows that there exists no analogy between the “traditional” counter and the small shop in the town center. The authors point out staging and experiments aiming at reformulating both the products’ qualities and the consumers’ competences. More generally, these actions contribute to reveal and shape by successive adjustments a demand that is necessary for a good working of this economic strategy.