REPORTAGE
On Tuesday, cafes, bars and restaurants were able to reopen for the first time since confinement. Entirely for establishments in the green zone, only on the terrace for those in the orange zone. Many customers have rediscovered the joys of a restaurant meal or a drink on the terrace, but some professionals did not want to reopen their establishments to customers. They point to a health protocol that is too costly to implement or too complex. According to them, this opening under constraints, linked to Covid-19, would not be profitable. Europe 1 was to meet them, in the fifth arrondissement of Paris.
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Too much investment
"60% of our customers are tourists, and for the moment there are none, so it's not even worth reopening. We don't know the loss we're going to have," says Antonio. Its establishment has a beautiful terrace in full sun, a few meters from the Pantheon. However, he chose not to reopen the doors of his pizzeria because it would cost him too much.
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"So already to launch the restaurant, to start all over again, you need at least 10,000 euros to buy the goods and put everything back in place," points out the restaurateur. "There I have 10 employees who work for me, everyone is on short-time working. If we reopen, it is time to work short-time working, we have to pay them." Too expensive compared to the expenses. More than anything, the restaurateur does not want to be forced to fire someone.
No room for a terrace
Antonio is one of the 40% of restaurants in the neighborhood that kept their doors closed on Tuesday. Others have chosen to open for take-out but still refuse to welcome customers because setting up a terrace is impossible. The sidewalks are very narrow in this historic district of Paris.
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"Even if there are several passages, there will be a dozen people," said Zhongjie, who can only set up two tables in front of his establishment. "It will be, come on, 150 to 200 euros, if I open the terrace, that's it." A gain that is not enough to be profitable, he explains. He waits impatiently for the end of June to find out if the sanitary rules soften in order to find his room and a normal rhythm.