<\/p>\n
\n\tPARIS \u2014 Hunker down.<\/p>\n
\n\tAt a time when Christmas lights have started appearing in London, retailers in France and Italy boarded up their stores and curtailed opening hours on Saturday in preparation for another day of major protests, following the previous weekend\u2019s demonstrations during which thousands of stores were damaged or looted.<\/p>\n
\n\tAlthough Saturday\u2019s marches in both countries were mostly peaceful, with isolated pockets of violence, the retail sector was left tallying the cost of lost business in the runup to the crucial holiday season \u2014 not to mention additional expenses linked to increased security measures. The lost business came on top of the costs of repairing the damages from the Oct. 17 marches.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cCompared with last Saturday, yesterday was a relief. But the precautions taken to protect shops and their staff are having an impact on business,\u201d Judith Jiguet, executive director of the French Retail Federation, said in a statement Sunday.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShutting shop or erecting barricades cannot become the new normal. Retailers are essential to the life of our town centers: They must be able to rely on the public authorities to ensure their safety,\u201d the executive added.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe federation, whose members include Galeries Lafayette Group, sporting goods retailer Decathlon and supermarket chains including Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Monoprix, said it remained \u201cparticularly vigilant\u201d ahead of Nov. 5, when French unions have called for nationwide strikes.<\/p>\n
\n\tApple closed all three of its Paris stores on Saturday, but LVMH Mo\u00ebt Hennessy Louis Vuitton said it planned business as usual. On the Avenue des Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es, roughly half the stores were protected by metal curtains or chipboard panels.<\/p>\n
\n\tPrintemps shuttered its store in Lille and shortened opening hours elsewhere, with the Nation branch in the east of Paris closing at 3 p.m., while the Boulevard Haussmann flagship shut 30 minutes early at 7:30 p.m., a spokeswoman said. Printemps stores in Marseille, Rouen, Nancy and Lyon also closed earlier than usual.<\/p>\n
\n\tGaleries Lafayette kept all its locations running, but with limited opening hours in Rennes, Perpignan, Caen, Toulon, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Nantes and Toulouse, a spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n
\t\tBring Back Order\t<\/p>\n
\n\tAuthorities were determined to avoid a repeat of the scenes of chaos that unfolded on Oct. 17, deploying 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, Sentinelle military personnel and elite commandos such as the RAID and GIGN, in addition to helicopters and armored vehicles.<\/p>\n
\n\tProtests were banned in several cities, including Lyon and Marseille, while in Paris, the route of the main demonstration organized by the CGT union was changed at the last moment, with the police prefecture citing the need to protect retailers.<\/p>\n
\n\tThose on the revised itinerary, which snaked from the south to the east of the French capital, were left scrambling to secure their storefronts.<\/p>\n
\n\tVideos shot by local residents showed a flood of people stretching for miles, with the crowd estimated at 250,000 by the CGT and 110,000 by the Interior Ministry. Nationwide, the number of participants totaled 800,000 according to the union, or 410,000 according to police, slightly down from the previous week.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs the procession arrived on the Cours de Vincennes to the east of Paris in the late afternoon, a group of 500 violent \u201ctroublemakers\u201d clashed with police, the Interior Ministry reported. They hurled projectiles including glass bottles, and police responded with tear gas and water cannons.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Sunday morning, as joggers and families returned to the neighborhood, there were few visible signs of the clashes, except for scores of graffitied slogans on walls and tram shelters, including one that read \u201cMacron Resign.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAnger has mounted against President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s administration over conditions in public schools and the soaring cost of living. Violent clashes were also recorded on Saturday in Lyon, Rennes, Nantes, Bordeaux, Nice and Marseille.<\/p>\n
\n\tNationwide, \u201cseveral\u201d stores were damaged and 24 looted, compared with the 1,522 businesses affected the previous week, the Interior Ministry said in a statement Sunday. Police made 1,314 arrests, down from 2,628 the previous week.<\/p>\n
\n\tTrade Minister Serge Papin estimated more than 3,000 stores were damaged or looted on Oct. 17. In Paris alone, local authorities had tallied 451 vandalized retailers, including 228 stores that were stripped bare, ranging from mom-and-pop groceries to luxury boutiques.<\/p>\n
\t\tControversial Advice\t<\/p>\n
\n\tPapin sought to reassure the sector in the runup to the second weekend of demonstrations. \u201cTo the shopkeepers listening this morning, I want to say: you can be confident that order will be restored by the 24th,\u201d he told financial news channel BFM Business on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\n\tDespite this, Paris police chief Patrice Faure advised store owners to take precautionary measures, including closing or shortening their working hours, barricading windows, removing any external objects that might be used as projectiles and, if possible, hiring private security.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe latter suggestion raised the ire of politicians including David Lisnard, president of the Association of French Mayors, who called it \u201can unacceptable admission of powerlessness\u201d on the part of the authorities.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShopkeepers pay for the repairs and pay taxes so that the state can ensure their security \u2014 yet they are now expected to pay a third time for private security,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cUnable to fulfill this basic duty, the state is asking them to pay security companies. More costs, and therefore less income, at a difficult time. And the same injustice remains: The first victims will be those on the lowest incomes, who cannot afford this protection,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\n\tFaure responded by apologizing for a \u201cclumsy\u201d expression of support for retailers.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cProtecting shopkeepers and their premises is the state\u2019s responsibility. We will not shirk our responsibilities. The preventive and deterrent measures recommended to shopkeepers are intended to complement this action, not replace it,\u201d he stated on X.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the wake of the Oct. 17 violence, Faure ordered the creation of a task force of 200 investigators charged with bringing vandals and looters to justice.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThey are pursuing every lead available to them, including social media, CCTV footage and forensic evidence. We shall not rest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe police boss also ordered a nightly curfew in sensitive areas, including Place de la R\u00e9publique and the Les Halles district, home to the Westfield Forum des Halles shopping center.<\/p>\n
\t\tMilan on Alert\t<\/p>\n
\n\tTension built up also in Italy, specifically in Milan, where last weekend student-led protests over the rising cost of living, inflation and access to education were marred by widespread unrest in downtown as several hundred hooded individuals joined and took advantage of the demonstrations to loot shops and businesses.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn Friday, many retailers in town already started to barricade their stores as threats of new protests spread on social media throughout the week. These included stores mainly located in central high-traffic shopping areas including luxury\u2019s Golden Triangle, the Duomo and San Babila Squares, thoroughfares Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Via Torino.<\/p>\n
\n\tDespite Mayor Giuseppe Sala\u2019s exhortation to stay open, some key businesses opted for an early closing on Saturday, including the Rinascente department store overlooking the Duomo cathedral that shut its doors at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n
\n\tOthers \u2014 spanning from Adidas to Levi\u2019s \u2014 applied signs that they were open over the plywood panels protecting their windows to encourage shoppers to step in.<\/p>\n
\n\tLaw enforcement was heavily deployed to contain potential upheaval, but there were no new episodes of looting on Saturday, when about 10,000 protesters gathered in a peaceful demonstration in Milan.<\/p>\n
\n\tClashes with police were registered in other Italian cities, however, including Turin, Bologna and Rome, where roughly 50 students among the 4,000 protesters temporarily broke into the Colosseum. In Florence, law enforcement clashed with those trying to access the luxury shopping street Via Tornabuoni.<\/p>\n
\n\tMarco Barbieri, general secretary of the Confcommercio Milano trade confederation, estimated that the damage to stores and commercial activities in Milan from the first weekend of clashes totaled more than 1 million euros, between structural damages and missed sales due to the early closing of businesses.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt seems that reason has prevailed in Milan,\u201d Barbieri said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe senseless vandalism that wreaked havoc on the city center last weekend has not been repeated. As we have always said, demonstrating in a civil manner is a sacrosanct and inviolable right \u2014 one that stands in direct opposition to violence. We thank the public institutions, law enforcement, and the military for managing and keeping a difficult situation under control,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe are especially grateful to the retailers who, despite the tensions, kept their businesses open \u2014 demonstrating the true meaning of courage, responsibility and trust. Let us never forget that, thanks to them, our cities are more vibrant, more attractive and safer,\u201d Barbieri said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe executive said half of the local fashion stores decided to close on Saturday, while restaurants and bars remained open. He reiterated that besides the economic implications, the city faces reputational damage.<\/p>\n
\n\tMeanwhile, many independent retailers took to local media to voice their concerns, highlighting how they can\u2019t afford continued early closings and lost income opportunities, especially with the holiday season around the corner.<\/p>\n
#French #Italian #Retailers #Tally #Losses #Ahead #Holiday #Season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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