The trade sector recorded an average decline of 25% year on year due to the protests of the “yellow vests”, said Saturday the secretary of State for economic, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, saying that “thousands of jobs are at stake”. “It is rather an average of less than 25%, but with very large gaps,” said Agnès Pannier-Runacher on BFM-TV during a debate on the impact of the movement of the “yellow vests” on the trade. “The businesses that have perishable products are the most affected because they will never be able to catch up on their goods,” she observed.
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Asked about the sales declines of less than 40% to less than 70%, it was estimated that it was about “businesses who have been most affected, those who have been forced to close the curtain on certain Saturdays of the last few weeks”. “The shopkeepers told me of less than 15% to less than 40%, less 50%”, said of his side Francis Palombi, president of the Confederation of traders of France. “Catch up in three days, five weeks of chaos and crisis, this will not be possible”,-he said. “The mood is not returned,” he said, denouncing “a Saturday, too much” side of the “yellow vests”. For the president of the Confederation of traders, “we won’t catch up no time lost. The losses are high, there is a lot of anxiety (…) and in addition, it touches on the job.”
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“there are thousands of jobs at stake” and “subjects of cash very important” to merchants, according to the secretary of State. “We have 43,000 people in part-time unemployment, which have been requested”. “We really need to mobilize and that the yellow Vests stop block”, added Ms. Pannier-Runacher. For his part, François Momboisse, president of Fevad, the federation of distance selling, said that e-commerce had not particularly benefited from the difficulties of traditional trade. “The first two weeks of December, sales have been normal for the e-commerce. There has been no jump (…) there is a restart here, just before Christmas, the last week”, he explained. “The trend (in general) is always at most 14%, this is the trend that it has for the past three-four years. There is not a boom of growth, more 25 or more 30, not at all,” said Mr. Momboisse.
