Strikes hit Christmas shopping season
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-yearold 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.