” I can enter ? “ “Do I have to make an appointment to come to the store?” “ After a month and a half of closure, the first customers to shyly pass a head through the door of one of the fourteen Parisian boutiques of the Zapa women’s clothing brand, on the day of the reopening of non-essential shops on May 19, had lost the habit of entering it spontaneously.
However, “The activity of the first day was rather good, equivalent to that of a good Saturday before-Covid”, summarizes Emmanuel Le Roch, general delegate of the federation of specialized trade Procos, which brings together 300 brands. “And even a little better than during the deconfinement of 2020 in clothing, with a 155% increase in activity on the first day and 62% more frequentation than in 2019, adds Yohann Petiot, director general of the Alliance du commerce. Also because this time all categories were up: men, women and children. Where, in May 2020, only the children’s sector had experienced a very strong catching-up. “
The activity has dried up slightly over the days, ending with an 88% increase in turnover and 32% traffic over five days including the first Sunday. A good number of prefectural Sunday opening orders having been signed the night before, not all the stores were able to open. Only thirty-five prefects had granted an opening exemption last Sunday.
“Even the piano has disappeared”
During the extended weekend of Pentecost, with consumers who had fled the capital, we were in any case far from the traditional crowd on sales days in the Beaugrenelle shopping center in Paris. Some queues appeared at the entrance of large brands such as Zara or H&M, due to sanitary protocols: one customer for 8 square meters (and only one for smaller stores). A gauge that some very large shopping centers such as the Forum des Halles in Paris had even reinforced for a customer for 10 square meters while imposing the obligation to keep the mask, which de facto prevented any hint of itinerant catering. “In shopping centers, restaurants are also closed, people no longer come for lunch and they stay less long”, points out Mr. Le Roch.
“You can see that nothing makes sense anymore! “, Estimates a customer, while also deploring not to have been able to” try the clothes which one can however touch on racks “
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