After a first weekend of deconfinement, the French were quite numerous to allow themselves a shopping session.

Businesses in tourist areas have particularly benefited from the reopening, as has the province.

The result is more mixed for Parisian stores. 

Six days after the reopening of non-essential businesses, traders have just experienced their first weekend of deconfinement.

And the results are rather positive, according to the opinions collected by Europe 1, especially in tourist areas, which benefit from the long weekend of Pentecost.

"It's really exceptional," says Marine, who runs a clothing and decoration store in Cabourg.

"Since Wednesday it's madness! People really come to have fun, they want to spend in the shops. We really feel a wind of happiness that warms the heart."

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"The provinces rather well, Paris rather not well"

"In the provinces, in general, it is rather a good recovery. The tourist areas have turned out rather well", confirms for his part, Francis Palombi, president of the Federation of independent traders.

But the situation is not so rosy at the national level.

"In Paris, the few retailers that I was able to contact were mixed. They told me that it was not good. So it is a little mixed: the province rather well, and Paris rather not well."

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Note, however, the fine performance of Printemps Hausmann in Paris, with sales twice as high as in the same period two years ago. A result which is all the more encouraging as it concerns only French customers, since foreigners, who represent 40% of the turnover of Parisian department stores, still cannot window shop in the capital.  

"What we saw at the reopening were customers who enjoyed finding their businesses and who often transformed window shopping into purchases, more than before", abounds, also with Europe 1, Yohann Petiot, general manager of the Alliance du commerce, which represents more than 760 brands, 26,000 points of sale, from department stores to clothing and footwear.

"In any case, let us hope that the customers who wanted to find their store will keep this same desire in the coming weeks." 

A postponement of sales, an assumption that divides small traders and large brands

The big brands are against a postponement of the summer sales, scheduled in a month, from June 23 to July 20, unlike the small businesses who want to be able to sell at the price to compensate for the losses of recent months. “All the businesses that have been closed for nearly three and a half months have a lot of stocks, whether they are entry-of-season or mid-season products that have not been able to be sold. "We can sell stocks as quickly as possible. Sales are expected for this reason in particular", argues Yohann Petiot. 

He also believes that postponing sales over the summer period would harm the brands of large cities. "We want the sales to start at the end of June so that the big cities can also benefit from this extremely important commercial period. Last year, when we compare the summer sales 2020 which were put back by three weeks compared to the summer sales 2019, it was a drop in activity of 21% ", he laments.