Government of France postpones Black Friday

PARIS — The national government Friday declared it was postponing Black Friday as it moved to quell a nationwide rebellion by shopkeepers who say Amazon has been stealing business from them during the country’s coronavirus lockdown.

Black Friday, the U.S. import that has been embraced by European retailers as the quasi-official kickoff to the Christmas shopping season, will be delayed by a week in France, to Dec. 4, after the government wrested an agreement from Amazon and the country’s biggest retailers to delay their discounts.

The move is intended to level the playing field for booksellers, clothing shops and “nonessential” businesses that were forced to close their doors Oct. 30 after a second national lockdown was imposed, propelling consumers to online sites, includingAmazon.

Under the accord, big retailers agreed to put off their Black Friday sales promotions on the condition the government reauthorizes the reopening of small retailers by then.

Shopkeepers have agitated since the new lockdown orders took effect to be able to restart business.

“Let us open orwe will die,” Yohann Petiot, director general of France’s Alliance du Commerce, a trade group for businesses, told government officials this week.

But Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, didn’t say Friday when shops and other nonessential businesses would be allowed to resume operations.

While the current lockdown has helped curb an alarming new outbreak of coronavirus cases, French health authorities have cautioned that any reopenings must meet strict safety protocols.

Stores “will be able to open as soon as health indicators improve,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said Friday.

In the lead-up to the announcement, Le Maire and other politicians urged shoppers not to give Amazon their business.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo helped circulate an online petition titled “Noël Sans Amazon” (“An Amazon-free Christmas”).

But Amazon’s influence in France — it holds around 20 percent of the French e-commerce market — is such that other big retailers held back from agreeing to postpone their Black Friday sales until Amazon did.

After Le Maire told the French Senate on Wednesday that it made sense to help small retailers by postponing Black Friday, Frédéric Duval, general manager of Amazon France, told a radio station the company would put off its online sales until Dec. 4, paving the way for a broad accord.