Two years after the first wave of the epidemic, they are still suffocating. Already penalized by the confinements, traders in the business district are not coping well with the effects of telework combined with loan repayments and the increase in raw materials. A situation that around thirty of them, gathered under the banner of the Action Défense association, denounced, this Monday afternoon, during a rally on the steps of the Grande Arche.
Their grievances: a drop in charges and rents which often represent between 25 and 40% of turnover, a restructuring of the loan guaranteed by the State (PGE) contracted by many of them during the health crisis and, finally, a spreading of the investment debt. “Basically, we are asking for a specific status for La Défense merchants”, sums up Esther, who says she is ready to chain herself to her establishment to avoid the end of the Kodeo adventure, an Asian restaurant that she opened just before the Covid, at the foot of the Cœur Défense towers.
“We only work three and a half days a week”
Why a specific status? Because in La Défense more than elsewhere, traders believe they are dependent on the activity of office towers. Towers that they say ring hollow half the week. The public establishment Paris La Défense can congratulate itself on an “exceptional” year 2022 on the real estate market with 218,577 m² placed; well-known companies such as Afflelou, Arkema, Costa or Pandora may announce their return or their arrival in the district; the merchants believe that the account is not there. And that it will never be there again. Hence this demand for a “new economic model” specific to the business district.
“The employees have returned but on a part-time basis. Teleworking is now installed and we will not go back. Clearly, the problem is no longer cyclical, it has become structural, laments Esther, whose landlord has seized the court of Nanterre for an eviction procedure. I work well on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, days when I even have to refuse people. On the other hand, it is very average on Monday and catastrophic on Friday. »
A bitter observation shared by Alice, whose restaurant, Le Ballon, a neighborhood institution for more than 20 years, is idling at the beginning and end of the week. “We only work three and a half days a week, supports the manager, whose number of employees has fallen from 20 to 12. And in addition to teleworking, there are social movements, strikes for pensions. Each time the whole neighborhood empties. »
Employees don’t even go to the hairdresser anymore
A situation from which restaurateurs are not the only ones to suffer. Telework, Olivier, manager of a hairdressing salon installed at the Cnit since 1998, has also measured the painful effects. Last November, the curtain fell on his franchised salon, after a liquidation procedure. He employed 11 people.
Because even in the aftermath of the epidemic, the hairdresser never found the activity which was his before confinement and allowed him to pay 80,000 euros in rent, including more than 30,000 euros at the start of the year. A time when neighborhood employees took advantage of their lunch break to treat themselves to a new haircut. “From now on, they only come one day a week, regrets Olivier. And inevitably, it is not to go to the hairdresser. »
The trader did benefit from a partial exemption on rents, during closing periods, but the gesture was not enough. “Afterwards, I also understand the donors. They too have charges to pay, shareholders to satisfy and objectives to fulfill,” he breathes annoyed. “The problem is that the rents, we can no longer pay them, Alice gets annoyed. We are desperate without having made any management errors. »
In search of urgent solutions, the association Action Défense maintains regular contact with the sub-prefect in charge of economic development and employment, as well as with the person in charge of expertise and economic actions of the departmental directorate of public finances of Hauts- de-Seine, who is also a crisis resolution advisor for Hauts-de-Seine.
But for traders, the alternatives offered are far from satisfactory, while the public authorities have little control over private landlords. “For example, we are given the possibility of postponing the reimbursement of the PGE by two years, explains Alice. But if we accept, we pass for bad payers and we find ourselves stuck with the banks. »