Many shops in downtown Marseille will close -

Mathilde Ceilles / 20 Minutes

  • According to a study by the Chamber of Commerce, four out of ten merchants in Marseille city center plan to finally draw the curtain in early 2021.

  • Blame it on the health crisis that has plagued businesses already fragile for several years in Marseille

You just have to walk around the city center of Marseille to make this bitter observation.

There, an empty room, in a busy street.

A little further on, another store "for rent" ...

In the second largest city in France, the economic effects of confinement are already being felt.

According to a survey carried out by the Aix-Marseille Provence metropolitan chamber of commerce and industry, four out of ten merchants, bars or restaurants in the city center say they will not be in operation by the end of the first semester 2021.

Change job

"Faced with the difficulty of the economic crisis, the closures, the" stop and go ", a certain number of these traders consider, either because they are of retirement age or because they have other possibilities, that they must stop and change profession, notes the president of the CCI Jean-Luc Chauvin.

There are also those who have cash flow difficulties more than some, who probably had - before already - difficulties or who have finished using all the aids at their disposal.

And those do not imagine being able to hold out any longer.

"

Long before the health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic, downtown commerce in Marseille was in fact already weakened by months of construction sites, in particular the tramway, recurring parking and cleanliness issues, and even the presence of many shopping centers.

"A beautiful play area"

“There, we are leaving a year and a half of work to pedestrianize the city center, rejoices Guillaume Sicard, president of the Marseille Center federation, an association of downtown merchants.

We have to admit that the city did a great job.

Now, we have a nice play area. But we couldn't really use it with all that… ”

Effective since the end of the year, this pedestrianization had quickly borne fruit for downtown businesses, according to Guillaume Sicard.

“I am obviously not talking about restaurateurs and bars that are suffering.

But for us, local businesses, we were still able to work in December, and overall, we did pretty well at Christmas.

It allowed us to rebuild a little bit of cash flow.

But that does not fill a closed November month.

We're still down.

"

"A real concern about a new confinement"

And bankruptcies are likely to follow one another, according to Jean-Luc Chauvin, who is alarmist.

“Studies on the metropolis of Nancy show that, with the curfew, closing two hours earlier results in a loss of 30 to 35% of turnover for convenience stores.

The traders who are open today, who work, do not make any money.

They continue to lose.

"

"We have real concerns about a new confinement," says Guillaume Sicard.

We have the repayment of loans, the Ursaff which is starting to run, rents to pay… ”A defense council is scheduled for Wednesday with, at the end, possible new announcements to contain the coronavirus epidemic.

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  • Confinement

  • Bankruptcy

  • Trade

  • Coronavirus

  • epidemic