Sixteen merchant federations deemed Saturday "insufficient" the call, launched by Bruno Le Maire and relayed by the main donor organizations, so that very small businesses forced to close because of confinement would not have to pay rents during three months. The Minister of Economy also recommended Thursday over-the-counter negotiations between other independent businesses and their lessors.
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An "excessively restricted perimeter"
"If the signatories welcome the progress for VSEs (very small companies), they denounce measures still very largely insufficient and which do not respond to the cry of alarm launched by all the companies and actors of the trade", write them in a joint press release. "This measure should not be limited only to very small businesses benefiting from the solidarity fund," they say, deeming "unacceptable in light of the scale of the crisis" the "excessively restricted perimeter" envisaged by the minister.
"It is all the traders, small, medium and large, whatever their size, who are now closed and who are threatened in their survival", they underline. The measure, they add, "cannot only concern large real estate companies, mainly owners of shopping centers" which represent less than 10% of businesses.
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The 16 federations ask for a cancellation of the rents
In addition, "this measure should not concern only the closing period", because the recovery "will be very gradual and therefore risky economically and socially" after the end of confinement, according to them. "Impossible for any merchant to pay normal rent in such a situation."
The 16 federations therefore recall their requirements: cancellation of rents during the closing period and their indexation to the reality of the activity in the months following the reopening of stores.
"A collective solution is the only one capable of saving the 2.6 million jobs and the 400,000 companies in our sector", declare the authors of the press release, representing in particular food, furniture, bakery, jewelry and watchmaking, the electronics, sports equipment, franchising, clothing, toys, optics and catering.