Coronavirus: Closed traders organize themselves in the face of competition from large retailers
Traders, independents and craftsmen, forced to lower their curtains because they are considered "non-essential", are trying to limit the damage in the face of "unfair competition" in particular from supermarkets, which continue to sell non-food goods.
During a session of questions to the government on Thursday, the deputy of Seine-et-Marne Patricia Lemoine (UDI-Agir) challenged the executive on "these traders and self-employed who fear not being able to survive this crisis", party for last several more weeks.
The network of chambers of commerce and crafts (CMA), which represents 1.3 million businesses, also mentioned in a press release the "combat" in which it launched "with artisans to avoid bankruptcy" .
"Although it is natural that supermarkets can supply the French with basic necessities and food, we can question the relevance of the sale of other less essential goods, such as clothing, flowers, DIY and leisure products", noted Ms. Lemoine, while "small businesses offering this type of product are forced to close".
“These supermarkets take advantage, involuntarily perhaps but very directly, of the peaks in attendance generated by this health crisis to strengthen their profits where others are dying”, added the deputy, referring to a “distortion of competition” and prices "which are soaring, especially at Rungis".
Solidarity fund
Secretary of State for the Economy Agnès Pannier-Runacher contented herself with recalling that the government had set up a “solidarity fund specifically dedicated to the self-employed, who make less than one million euros in turnover. business" and lost 70% of their turnover between March 2019 and March 2020, i.e. around 600,000 companies.
This fund, endowed with two billion euros, was announced on Tuesday by the government and will notably allow the payment by the public finance department (DGFip) of 1,500 euros on a lump sum basis.
But for some traders, this is not enough.
“Today, we are faced with unfair competition: allowing supermarkets to sell cut flowers is a second injustice for us,” the president of the French federation of florists told AFP ( FFAF), Florent Moreau. His 14,000 colleagues have all closed their businesses since Sunday morning, after offering their flowers to passers-by so as not to throw them away.
"We naturally alerted the government to this point, pleading for sales (in supermarkets, editor's note) to be + sectorized +, that is to say that some shelves are accessible to consumers and others not, but for the moment it was not necessarily heard by the government", regrets the president of the FFAF, himself a florist in Vendée. He specifies that this request has also been made by other "non-essential" craft trades.
Reopening of bookstores?
Toys are also affected. Spokesperson for the JouéClub brand, all of whose stores have closed, Franck Mathais recognizes that "spontaneously, we can say that this situation is annoying". But, he tempers with AFP, "as far as I know, despite the influx of customers in the hypermarkets, the non-food departments are for the moment neglected".
Faced with a loss of turnover estimated at at least a month during which "there is the peak of Easter", he recalls. The brand directs its members to the measures put in place by the government, such as the use of partial unemployment or the postponement of rent payments, even “if the situation will be assessed on a case-by-case basis”.
Bookstores, also closed while supermarkets can continue to sell books, had also denounced Wednesday, via their union (SLF), “the health heresy represented by the continuation of deliveries and sales of books on platforms. Internet forms and in mass distribution".
The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire proposed Thursday to study their reopening.
(With AFP)
- Prev
- Next
