France: bookstores classified as "essential shops", according to a decree
Saleswoman in a bookstore in Mulhouse, May 11, 2020 (Illustrative photo).
SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Bookstores have joined the list of so-called essential shops and may remain open in the event of confinement on weekends, according to a decree published this Friday in the Official Journal.
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Bookstores will be able to open Saturdays and Sundays between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., specifies this decree, while the cities of Nice and
Dunkirk are
preparing to experience their first weekends confined.
During the lockdown in November, bookstores were authorized to sell on their doorstep books reserved by customers in "click and collect".
But they could not receive the public, because not considered essential.
A measure that had been unanimously denounced by bookstores, writers and publishers.
This decree comes in a context of resumption of the epidemic linked to Covid-19 and as the government is considering possible
new restrictions in twenty departments
covering Paris, Lyon and Marseille, where cases of coronavirus threaten to flare up.
The Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot "
welcomed
" the government's decision.
“
Bookstores are essential businesses.
There was never any doubt.
During the second confinement, the possibility of click-away and the free shipping costs of books offered to booksellers allowed them to maintain their activity,
”she told AFP.
(With AFP)
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