• In the Alpes-Maritimes, so-called “non-essential” businesses had to close in mid-March, after two weekends of partial and localized confinements.

  • For a week, traders have observed a good recovery, delighted to welcome new customers.

This Wednesday, in the middle of the day, Avenue Jean-Médecin in Nice is teeming with people. Masked and loaded with bags, the people of Nice go out and buy. To the happiness of traders. "There is a buying fever," smiles Valérie behind the counter of the Abysse jewelry store. People don't necessarily need the purchases they make right now, but they spend. They profit ! As a shopkeeper, we hope that it will last because for a week, we have been working and it feels good ”.

Since last Wednesday therefore, large and small brands have reopened their doors, which had been closed for more than two months in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Vanessa Brakha, manager of the ready-to-wear store By Colette, breathes: “The problem is that we had not anticipated the closure at all, which was therefore very brutal.

And we will never be able to make up for what has been lost.

So today, as long as the curtain is open, we are satisfied.

Hope is in that ”.

Maintain cash flow

Customers jostle in his store.

"The first day, we had a very nice reopening, launches the manager of the clothing store.

Since then, it has spread a bit.

But in general, these are people who come for advice.

They are happy to see us again and they tell us.

With or without a budget, as long as they are there, we are delighted!

"

The same crowd of people walks the alleys of Old Nice.

At the Baobab decoration store, too, the locals were enthusiastic.

“We want it to last,” says Sylvie, at the head of the establishment.

The key is to maintain cash flow to anticipate as much as possible.

Last year, we worked well so that gives us confidence.

But for this deconfinement, the restart is quieter.

"

Understanding and patient consumers

This is not the case with Nicétoile, which houses around a hundred shops.

Its director, Patrick Nolier, says: “This episode of deconfinement is better than the other two.

Retailers have become accustomed to working with this whole

process

 : masks, freezing, distancing in brands.

But it is also the case on the side of customers who are understanding and patient.

For the past week, we have observed a fluid recovery with consumers who are less cautious, surely because we have more perspective than before ”.

Our deconfinement file

Patrick Nolier qualifies all the same: "We always remain below the usual attendance with a decrease between 10 and 15% compared to the same period excluding Covid".

The manager is now waiting for one thing: June 9 and the complete reopening of his shopping center.

In this way, he hopes to "secure the customers" who come to consume in his shops but also in the restaurants of Nicétoile.

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  • Covid 19

  • Nice

  • Economy

  • Deconfinement

  • Trade