Through Laurent REBOURS
Published on 31 Oct 20 at 13:41
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A new period of general containment was decided by the Government Starting from Friday, October 30, 2020 to cope with a new outbreak of contamination in the Covid-19 pandemic.
This confinement is reflected in particular by the closure of so-called “non-essential” businesses.
But this distinction goes very badly while the large distribution, it can open all of its shelves where thousands of people meet to do their shopping, including “non-essential” if we take this approach, to the image of cultural goods.
A closure deemed unacceptable
The president of the merchants association of the city center of Chartres (Eure-et-Loir), The Showcases of Chartres, Juliette Pichot, just sent this Friday, October 30, 2020 an open letter to the Prefect of Eure-et-Loir, Fadela Benrabia.
A letter with a call for help accents for small businesses already largely in pain after the first episode of confinement and which, a few weeks before the Christmas holidays, obviously cherished the hope of days if not flourishing, at least better.
On behalf of 320 member merchants at the Vitrines de Chartres but also the 500 traders from Chartres, Juliette Pichot says “does not accept the closure imposed on non-essential shops for the month of November 2020, a minima, the overwhelming majority of which complied with all health protocols without constituting a proven health threat ”.
“Many will not survive! “
The essential commercial period at the end of the year cannot be subject to interminable and uncertain negotiation of state aid and support measures. Some will miss the boat, others will pass through given restrictive criteria, many traders will not survive at a time when the enormous stocks are already constituted representing significant expenses incurred which no longer have any prospect. in turnover for the entire month of November and even beyond.
In the eyes of the representative of downtown traders, it is impossible to make up for what will be lost.
Unfair treatment
And the inequality of treatment is considered “glaring” between small businesses and large distribution but also online business which is running at full speed at the end of the year.
Juliette Pichot wants proof of this on the day of Thursday, October 29, 2020 “Worthy of a Saturday” which testified to the support of the inhabitants for their local businesses “which are the basis of the social link, the local economy and our local jobs. Our local economies are the foundation of our society, as is our health system ”.
A risk of dislocation of living together
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Chartres traders insist on their involvement in the eradication of the Covid-19 pandemic, they have illustrated it by their protocols in shops for months.
“We express our full solidarity with health organizations in the fight against Covid-19 and share the objective of stemming the current wave”.
But the major health problem that we must face together must find a health response first and foremost with all of the country’s forces and resources, including economic players. It cannot constitute the starting point of a kneeling of all the social, economic and cultural components of our society which will lead to the dislocation of our living together and of our territories “.
The president of Vitrines de Chartres evokes the Heart of the City Action Plan signed in July 2018 and whose primary objective is the revitalization of the city center, “today we are being forced to do the opposite”.
“At the edge of the abyss”
Juliette Pichot is sounding the alarm in the face of the opening up of large and medium-sized stores “which will kill us all”. She mentions many independents today “on the edge of the abyss, financial but also moral and psychic abyss”.
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And to cite various examples deemed aberrant.
“It seems unthinkable to have a store with a tiny section of textiles and haberdashery items to be able to open all of its decoration, crockery and clothing departments while, in the same street the specialized stores are in administrative closure ”.
She also takes as an example hairdressers closed but home hairdressers who in some areas continue to practice.
It evokes the small signs where we only fit a few people into a few square meters, which we close, “while the hypermarkets, with no entry restrictions, which do not do not disinfect automatic checkouts, payment terminals or trolleys and which above all do not prevent the accumulation of groups of people at checkouts, would not be a source of spread of the virus? “
“Intolerable” unfair competition
“This unfair competition and this deprivation of exercising our professions, even by appointment in order to limit the regrouping of people, is intolerable” insists Juliette Pichot.
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Competition which finds its peak with online commerce “without being subject to the same tax rules”.
Faced with this observation, the association appeals to the representative of the State.
We demand the immediate reopening of businesses of less than 1000 m2 with a reinforced sanitary protocol negotiated with the State under conditions to be negotiated for a minimal functioning of these activities. Our German and Spanish neighbors understood that it was simply untenable at this end of the year period to subject our traders to a new imposed closure, regardless of the aid that will be mobilized.
Towards a sling of traders
Faced with the urgency of the situation for many small businesses, the opening of negotiations with the State is demanded to find an alternative allowing to combine health and economic imperatives.
One of the avenues could be the closure of non-food and non-essential departments in large-scale distribution, the association mentions, “accompanied by the authorization for all businesses in administrative closure to open by appointment”.
With in substance a ultimatum.
“Without a negotiated solution, many traders and artisans have decided to open in the coming days on all of our territories.”
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