2023-07-03 16:47:00
Nearly 220 major retail stores were targeted by rioters. About thirty ended up in ashes. The balance sheet is far from final.
By Beatrice Parrino A looted supermarket in Nantes, June 30, 2023. © SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS / AFP Published on 07/03/2023 at 6:47 p.m.
The count is imprecise, and certainly below reality. At the time of writing, Monday, July 3, between 200 and 220 major brand stores have been ransacked, even looted, by rioters throughout France. According to the Fédération du commerce et de la distribution joined by Point, about thirty of them would even have ended up in ashes. “There is nothing left”, we are told.
Food stores, in number, were the most affected: Aldi, with outlets often located in sensitive areas, is at the top of this sad list. Between Thursday and Saturday, the German group saw at least forty of its shops ransacked, including fifteen parts in flames. Over the same period, the Casino group, with Franprix, Naturalia, etc., would count between forty and fifty ransacked shops. Crossroads ? Several dozens. Lidl? Twenty, including at least three parts in smoke. Often, these places are located at the entrance to the city. It is in Paris, Marseille, in the Lyon region, in the suburbs of Lille that the damage is most frequent.
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Those questioned, and who have access to the video images shot by the surveillance cameras, all tell of their bewilderment. “This is organized looting. We see kids calling older people, who we then see disembark in the car at the store level to load equipment. They are old enough to be their parents. “On CCTV images of a Monoprix store, we see young looters starting their free “shopping” in the make-up department. “To believe that they were responding to an order,” laments a distributor.
Darty, Decathlon, Boulanger, etc., were also targeted by the rioters. At a household appliance specialist, we see a small group leaving with 500,000 euros worth of equipment. And those surreal scenes: looters using pallet jacks to move entire pallets of produce, leaving with cash registers, and eventually burning everything. A distributor says: “On the video images, we see people looting one of our stores for seven hours and leaving with all the stock, including washing machines, TVs. They are not gangs of young people, but organized individuals, sometimes mothers with their sons. »
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Law enforcement is focused on public buildings
The Ministry of the Economy was called upon by representatives of traders to improve the security of their establishments. “For the time being, the police are concentrated on public buildings, and a few shopping centers,” regrets a store manager. Nevertheless, the main networks have benefited from information “tips” in order to secure – at their expense – their points of sale. This may also explain why attacks on stores have been less spectacular in recent days.
“There are no fewer intrusion attempts, but they are less successful,” we are told. The distributors have not yet assessed either their losses or the number of employees who will have to be placed on partial unemployment. They demand that the State reinstate the system deployed during the Covid, in order to compensate their employees as quickly as possible. Negotiations are also underway with insurers – Bercy arbitrating the discussions. Will they take operating losses into account? These riots have exploded as the sales begin – a period, usually, splendor.
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