Paris (AFP)

Shops currently closed due to the health crisis can only reopen from May 11 if they enforce "barrier gestures" and take "social distancing" measures. A challenge that will be complicated to meet, warns the sector.

Between the clothing and shoe brands, those offering beauty treatments or hairdressing salons, there is the whole problem of contact between the merchant and his client.

However "whatever the trade in question", Prime Minister Edouard Philippe called on Sunday to "multiply the barrier gestures to minimize the circulation of the virus and its speed".

"We have been working for some time on the conditions of this reopening", to see what measures would be taken to "guarantee this health security to our customers and our employees", said Monday Jacques Creyssel, the general delegate of the Federation of Commerce and distribution (FCD), on BFM Business.

These measures, he added, will be "largely inspired by what we have been able to do in the food industry", where several provisions were quickly generalized to protect employees and customers: plexiglass windows at checkouts, distribution of surgical masks to staff, regular disinfection of crates and baskets, reduction of the number of people in the store, queues respecting a distance of one meter, provision of hydroalcoholic gel at the entrance or at crates ...

Specialist in the fashion and distribution sector within the firm Kea & Partners, Céline Choain affirms to AFP that the brands, less than three weeks before this deadline, are "generally in a critical situation with scenarios of resumption of activity which for the most part will oscillate between mid-May and the end of May ".

This reopening "will pose a lot of operational questions for the store and logistics teams," she believes, referring, among other things, to "customer and goods flows in store, the queue at the checkout, the right or not to touch or try the products, the increase in activities related to online sales (in particular the management of returns during the confinement period), etc. "

- "Just balance" -

At the Alliance du Commerce, which brings together the Union of large downtown businesses, the Federation of clothing brands and that of shoe brands, "we are giving ourselves this week to develop a plan with the Council of Commerce of France (CdCf) so that the signs then have fifteen days to apply it ".

It is necessary to find "a fair balance between necessary health security rules and a level of constraints which does not hamper the activity" of the store nor its profitability, explains to AFP Yohann Petiot, director general of the Trade Alliance . For him, the problem of absenteeism of employees in the sector - two thirds of women - may arise in addition if the schools do not reopen on May 11.

"It's very difficult to prepare because we have a date, but no details," said Régine Ferrère, president of the National Confederation of Aesthetics and Perfumery (CNEP).

His counterpart from the National Craft Confederation of Beauty and Spa Institutes (CNAIB Spa), Martine Berenguel, explains to AFP that it "worked on barrier gestures" in order to "protect employees and our customers" and " reassure them ", while stressing that" in (the) profession, we have always washed our hands, disinfected ".

The organization also prepares instructions for beauticians who work from home.

As for hairdressers, "the watchword must be: safety first" underlines to AFP Luc Hery, secretary general of the National Council of Hairdressing Companies (CNEC), who is particularly worried about the availability of masks protection, still difficult to obtain for some companies.

© 2020 AFP