Coronavirus: “We are going to go bankrupt!”, The desperate cry of traders in France

Severe confinement in France and a cry of anguish from non-essential traders: “We are going to go bankrupt”. Despite state aid, which can reach 10,000 euros, tax exemption, solidarity funds, owners of clothing shops, neighborhood grocers, florists, hairdressers, dry cleaners, jewelers, toy shops , who earn their annual income in the two months leading up to Christmas, believe that they can’t resist the containment force, when supermarkets in the same areas are open.

A second brutal wave in France, with 31,919 daily cases and 1 hospitalized every 30 seconds. Prime Minister Jean Castex has promised “a review” of severe confinement for them since December 1, even if bars and restaurants will not be included in any opening.

For the merchants and their survival, December is your priority and your only instrument for your salvation. In a gesture of help, they have banned from supermarkets sell clothes, books and toys to save bookstores and other businesses. But they are replaced by Amazon, which no one controls and which is developing in France.

Yan arrived from Lagos with his family after the war in Asia. His mini hairdressing salon on rue de Charonne has a stable and loyal clientele. This containment threatens your business. “If this continues, I must shut down forever. I can’t afford to pay my rent. They also do not allow me to assist my clients at home. At least I don’t have any staff and I shouldn’t fire anyone. But if this confinement lasts until the holidays, my union will not be able to survive, ”he said.

Christmas tree vendors are in despair over Covid restrictions. Started to sell via Zoom private customers, who can choose the size of the tree. “But the big tree sale begins this week and nothing is planned for distribution ”, complains Gérad Favé, who runs this company in Meudon, in the Hautes-de-Seine.

“Flowers are hard to sell with the zoom. People want to see them, compare them, smell them. My sales have fallen by 90%, ”complains Omar, with your flower shop closed on avenue Ledru Rollin in Paris.

Clothing stores are closing. They’ve lost the fall clothing sale, they’re starting to end the winter on the Internet, if they have any. No one do not buy anything other than online. Government assistance reaches 10,000 euros but it is not sufficient. It doesn’t even represent 5% of your turnover for the month of November. Coping with the payment of rent for the premises is the biggest problem.

The government wants to save Christmas and year-end sales. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno the Mayor, meets the federations and the MEDEF, which brings together the captains of industry, to find a way out for small traders, solidarity of the large towards non-essential trade.

With the dramatic figures of the pandemic, beauty institutes afraid to open now, if at least they are assured that they will be able to work before Christmas and New Years.

Toy sellers are desperate. “Everyone can work except us,” complains Thierry Leroux, owner of two toy houses in Paris. “Depresses me. I see that people are flocking to Monoprix and Leroy Merlin, even though I am not allowed to receive even one person in my shop at a time, ”he complains. He received 10,000 euros in aid but owes his suppliers 43,000 euros per month for his stock.

If they open on December 1, small merchants will have a strict protocol, which may include the mandatory prior appointment to enter.

His fear is that at Christmas his business lower the curtain for good, victims of the crisis, the restrictions and the long detention. In France, 30% of restaurants could close permanently. For them, lifting the restrictions is less feasible than for small traders.

Paris, correspondent

ap