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Strikes hit Christmas shopping season

Published:Tuesday | December 24, 2019 | 12:00 AM
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The Associated Press
Riot police officers detain a striking train worker outside the Gare de Lyon train station on Monday, December 23, in Paris.
The Associated Press
Pedestrians walk near a department store in Paris, Thursday, Dec.19, 2019. French retailers, hotels and cafes are struggling at the height of the holiday shopping season, because a protracted transportation strike and repeated protests in Paris and other cities are keeping shoppers and visitors away. And it's the second year in a row _ last year's Christmas season was hit by yellow vest protests. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
The Associated Press
A striking train worker holds a box to collect -funds for striking workers in front of riot police officers outside the the Gare de Lyon train station, Monday, Dec. 23, 2019 in Paris. A wildcat protest comes on Day 19 of nationwide strike over the government's plans to raise the retirement age to 64. The union-led protest Monday led to a standoff with riot police that spilled onto the streets around the historic Gare de Lyon train station. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
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PARIS (AP):

Last year, it was the yellow vest protests. This year, it’s the strikes that have crippled Paris. The Christmas holidays aren’t proving to be a lucrative – or indeed merry – time for boutiques in the capital.

Or, for that matter, oyster vendors. Or hotels, or cafés.

Decorative lights still shimmer along the French capital’s glamorous avenues and illuminate its breathtaking monuments, but that’s not enough to bring back the business that retailers have lost since train drivers and others went on strike on December 5.

Monday marked day 19 of the strikes over President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to redesign the national pension system, which unions see as a threat to the French welfare system and way of life.

A wildcat protest by union activists on Monday disrupted traffic on one of only two Paris subway lines that’s been functioning normally — and prevented shoppers from reaching the shopping mecca along the Champs-élysées.

Those driving to the capital to shop sometimes face hours of traffic, and battles or long waits for scarce parking spots.

“It’s very difficult. I usually go to the Galeries Lafayette several times, walk through Paris to buy things, but this time I gave that up,” said Marie Lesage, a 32-year-old Parisian.

So she decided to shop online or in little boutiques close to work.

Overall estimates of retail losses vary, but they’re hitting across the board. Toy stores, florists and foie gras sellers. Train station cafés, brasseries or burger shops.

The Paris government is offering €2.5 million in tax breaks to city merchants, and the central government is offering to delay 400 million in tax payments until next year. But the Paris region Chamber of Commerce says that’s not enough.

The chamber estimates retail sales in central Paris are down 30 per cent from last year. Galeries Lafayette alone registered a 50 per cent drop in sales the first day of the strike, it said.

Pascal Bouaziz, owner of a high-end electronics shop in the tony 8th district of Paris, estimates sales are down a third from a normal December.

“We are in a business neighbourhood, so people finish work … and usually during the holiday season they come in, they buy their products and they calmly return home. But now they’re scared to miss their train, so at 5 p.m. they’re running to get home,” he told The Associated Press. “We understand them. Because of this, we have fewer customers than usual.”