Paris (AFP)

Emptied or wrapped shelves, setting up of order pick-up: supermarkets have made a few "acrobatic" movements to adapt to the restrictions on the sale of "non-essential" products and continue to serve their customers, often at the cost of a strong "work overload".

"Closing shelves, I've been working in a hypermarket for 25 years, I've never known that".

Christophe Buysse is the director of the Carrefour hypermarket in Villiers-en-Bière (Seine-et-Marne), one of the largest in France.

Wednesday evening, he evokes a day "with a great impetus of cohesion and solidarity", to reorganize the shelves and respect a list of products "which has evolved until the last moment".

"It's a lot of work to ensure that the shelves correspond to the expectations of the State," he describes.

Since Wednesday morning and for the duration of the confinement, supermarkets can only market a limited number of products, starting with food, but also - among others - newspapers, stationery, construction materials, as well as as toiletries, hygiene, maintenance and childcare.

- "Discontent among customers" -

Rules not easy to apply.

“It creates discontent among customers, who do not understand which products are accessible or not,” explains José Mendes, CGT Monoprix Aubervilliers delegate.

"And it is an overload of work for the employees, especially as the instructions change every day, over the negotiations with the government."

CGT union manager at the Carrefour store in Angers Saint-Serge, Patrice Auvinet even called for an extraordinary CSE in the face of "total disorganization of the store" and "work overload".

"Colleagues change departments every day, a colleague is injured while looking for products in a reserve she did not know, three stitches ... It's total disorganization."

If he considers "normal that we have our role to play", Nicolas Bringer, boss of the Hyper U of Mende, in Lozère, also evokes an "acrobatic implementation".

"Our stores are not designed for that and there are somewhat contradictory things to take into account: the products must be inaccessible to customers, but not to our Courses U teams who prepare orders online", explains- he still does.

Supermarkets have "set up an organization in the form of click & collect", allowing customers "to remotely order unauthorized products for direct sale, which are taken to a collection point outside the store, such as a drive ", describes Christophe Buysse.

Ditto at Système U, which also "has the ability to use our site on which we have strengthened our assortment", explains Nicolas Bringer.

"We always find solutions, but it complicates our lives and that of our customers," observes the latter.

He "hopes that it will not last too long, because we are trying to preserve jobs for now but these departments represent big teams, and a big drop in turnover".

If the situation continued over time, some distributors could resort to partial unemployment.

- "Damn virus" -

At Lidl, unauthorized products have been "completely withdrawn and stored", and "replaced by festive food products in an attempt to push the turnover a little on these products", explains to AFP Michel Biero, executive director of purchasing and marketing.

"We have less non-food products than the others. What is problematic for us today is textiles, wooden toys that work very well normally, and Christmas decorations," he explains.

But "the most catastrophic are the flowers and plants, because the other products you can store them, while there you throw them".

Hoping that the government "will relax the rules concerning plants and Christmas trees", he nevertheless realizes that it is "not easy" for the authorities "to make decisions hour by hour".

"The most important", puts Michel Biero in perspective, "is that we play the game because the primary objective is to protect fellow citizens, and to get rid of this damn virus".

© 2020 AFP