2023-08-04 04:30:00
From the revelation of a project to set up in Sevran in January until the confirmation of the choice of Aulnay-sous-Bois at the start of the summer, the suspense lasted six months. In early 2024, Atacadão, the Brazilian subsidiary of Carrefour specializing in the sale of products in large quantities and at low prices, should welcome its first French customers in the O’Parinor shopping center.
This establishment will come to concretize, with delay, the ambition displayed by Alexandre Bompard. In an interview he gave to our newspaper in November 2022, the CEO of the retail giant announced the arrival “in September 2023 in Île-de-France” of his cash and carry brand, “a great success commercial thanks to its lowest prices on the market, a very small assortment and very large packaging”.
By announcing this opening within ten months, the former president of Europe 1 and Fnac had probably not measured the opposition it would arouse among some of the elected officials of Seine-Saint-Denis, since it is on this department, the poorest in mainland France, that Carrefour has set its sights on.
In Sevran, the outcry of unions, elected officials and residents
Stains, Aubervilliers, Rosny-sous-Bois, Montreuil… In recent months, articles in the specialized press have listed the municipalities where Carrefour has considered launching its discount brand. Contacted, the four aforementioned municipalities ensure that the retail giant has never approached them on this subject. Unlike Sevran.
From the end of January, the CGT and Force Ouvrière unions at the Beau Sevran hypermarket were alarmed at such a prospect. Driven by the former mayor of the city, Stéphane Gatignon (ex-EELV), the desire to transform this shopping mall with attendance at half mast had for a time been taken over by his successor Stéphane Blanchet (DVG). Which had ended up terminating in May 2021 the contract binding the municipality to a consulting company commissioned with this in mind.
Sevran, March 15, 2023. A citizens’ assembly to celebrate the “victory” against Carrefour and Atacadão brought together some 120 people. /Town hall of Sevran
By installing Atacadão there, the French group hoped to stem the decline of the shopping center. The mobilization of elected leftists and part of the population of Sevran got the better of this project. “We are moving forward on several other avenues, in conjunction with the municipalities concerned,” said the management of Carrefour at the time.
In Drancy, “it would have unbalanced the offer”
Was Drancy part of the list? Like Beau Sevran, the shopping center in the Avenir district is owned by Klépierre. Like him, he is located in the heart of the city and attracts a local population with limited purchasing power. This is enough to feed the concern of some of the 400 or so employees of Carrefour.
“The noise ran”, confirms Aude Lagarde (UDI). The mayor of Drancy confides that she has followed the “Sevran affair” from afar and says that she was alerted in March by “very worried” employees, including a union representative from Force Ouvrière. “I immediately wrote to Mr. Bompard to let him know that our municipality would oppose the installation of this sign,” she says. This would have unbalanced the commercial offer in Drancy. The response I received reassured me. »
Aulnay seduced by the promise of an investment of 10 million euros
It was during this period that Carrefour, through its director of territorial relations for the Ile-de-France, made contact with Bruno Beschizza (UDI). The mayor of Aulnay-sous-Bois, who speaks for his part of “advanced discussions” with the group, then agrees to meet Laurent Vallée, the right arm of Alexandre Bompard. The latter puts forward a strong argument: an investment of 10 million euros.
“At the national level, the attendance of hypermarkets has dropped by 2 to 3% for ten years”, observes the elected official, according to whom the fall would amount to more than 6% in the case of Carrefour de O’Parinor. Bruno Beschizza also notes that the surface of the hypermarket, taken over last year in lease-management by LabelVie, the franchisee of the French group in Morocco, has been reduced by a third over the past fifteen years.
Aulnay-sous-Bois, July 5, 2023. It is in the O’Parinor shopping center that Atacadão will set up its first French store, instead of the Carrefour hypermarket.
“We can see the trend,” he says. Besides that, Hmarket took a lot of market share, Leclerc too. In this context, the first magistrate of Aulnay welcomes the arrival of a new actor “who offers a little purchasing power to the inhabitants”, almost a decade after the opening in this same center of the first Primark in the Ile-de-France region. A Carrefour official would have assured him that the prices charged by Atacadão would be at least 10% lower than those of a conventional supermarket, “even at retail”.
Social breakdown in sight?
We were unable to reach the local union representatives. But according to a Force Ouvrière delegate from Carrefour d’Échirolles (Isère), also taken over by LabelVie in 2022 without a change of brand, working conditions would also be down since the staff are employed by the franchisee. . The latter is already experimenting with the Atacadão model on the other side of the Mediterranean.
“Social dialogue is very difficult with Moroccan leaders,” says Mohamed Essid. Them, it’s really cost reduction. There have been a lot of departures among the staff, out of disgust, and people have not been replaced. They questioned our fourteenth month, our meal vouchers. They act with the support of Carrefour, to which, however, feedback from colleagues was sent back a few months ago. »
“You will find 23,000 references there, including at least 30% of the Carrefour brand”
Anxious to prevent the (many) criticisms that accompany the brand from across the Atlantic, including a drop in the quality of the products sold and the number of jobs – 360 currently within the O’Parinor hypermarket –, the mayor claims to have obtained assurances from the retail giant, which he now wishes to put down on paper.
“The Atacadão d’Aulnay will not be that of Brazil, he certifies. There you will find 23,000 references, including at least 30% of the Carrefour brand and no more than 10% of imported products, as well as a bakery, butcher and fishmonger department. I may be wrong, but it will work a bit on the principle of Ikea, with large shelves at the end of the store. »
Work should begin within two months, on 10,000 m2. At the request of the municipality, Carrefour would keep a sales area on the remaining 6,000 m2. “Initially, a dry closure was planned from September”, assures Bruno Beschizza. When Atacadão opens, the 6,000 m2 will return to the mall.
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