A shopping center in Lyon during winter 2020. -

ROMAIN DOUCELIN / SIPA

  • Initially scheduled for January 6, the winter sales start this Wednesday, January 20.

  • But they come in a very specific context, with the 6 p.m. curfew implemented across the country to deal with the Covid-19 epidemic.

  • Traders are calling for it to be easier to open on Sundays.

The winter sales open this Wednesday, and for traders, the coming period will be tinged with worry and relief.

Relief, first of all, because the stores are currently escaping re-containment, which would have been particularly disastrous for their turnover.

But worry, necessarily, because the epidemic situation remains tense, and especially because the curtain must be lowered at 6 p.m., to respect the national curfew, established (for the moment) for two weeks.

"What we do not know is the behavior of customers: will they be able to go to the store at other times of the day?

“Asks AFP Yohann Petiot, managing director of the Alliance du commerce, which brings together 450 brands and 180,000 employees.

The stakes are high: according to the National Council of Shopping Centers (CNCC), “frequentation of shopping centers after 6 pm corresponds to 20% of their activity”.

However, not all customers have time to postpone their non-essential purchases to another time of day.

A change in consumption habits?

“We lose between 15% and 20% of daily sales, deplores Bertrand Cohen-Hadad, president of the CPME Paris Ile-de-France.

The effect is particularly noticeable in large metropolises, where people often have to make long journeys between home and work.

If you take 45 minutes to get home, you won't have time to do your shopping at night ”.

“The closure at 6 pm is an additional penalty, deplores for her part Véronique Discours-Buhot, general delegate of the French Federation of the franchise.

Especially since the sales are so-called "impulse" purchases and not essential.

People no longer stroll in the shops, they no longer have time to try on clothes, for example ”.

An average budget of 319 euros

Beyond the adaptation or not of customers to the new hours, traders will also scrutinize with interest any changes in purchases.

In fact, traditionally sales are an opportunity for clothing stores to destock and achieve good sales, which represent on average 20% of annual turnover.

But 2020 has gone through this, and confinement has changed habits.

Thus, in-store shoe sales plummeted, as did clothing sales.

Consumers go out less, walk less, and therefore have less need to update their wardrobes.

And selling online is not always enough to make up for losses.

Little consolation: according to a YouGov poll carried out on January 7 and 8 (i.e. before the announcement of the national curfew), the French plan to spend an average of 319 euros in stores or online, and 50% of those who will take advantage of the sales will do so with an unchanged budget compared to last year.

Open on Sunday to compensate

To try to counter the effect of the curfew, the representatives of the various federations of traders are pushing to be able to open every Sunday during the sales.

The CPME Ile-de-France thus sent a letter to the Prefect of the Region - the only one authorized to validate the openings - asking him for exemptions for the shops on January 24 and 31, as well as on February 7 and 14.

“We ask that the Sunday opening during the sales be systematized, as was the case during the deconfinement in November, supports Véronique Discours-Buhot.

For the moment this is not the case, since each business must complete an individual request.

It is therefore necessary to simplify the procedures ”.

To avoid, at all costs, that the sales are a failure.

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  • Curfew

  • Covid 19

  • Consumption

  • Coronavirus

  • Economy

  • Sales