Supermarket chains Auchan and Monoprix announced that their establishments would make room for certain merchants forced to close by the reconfinement, while local elected officials and small businesses denounce an injustice favoring large-scale distribution. “From Monday November 2, as a measure of solidarity, Auchan is making its physical platforms available to merchants affected by the closure of their store”, the French hypermarket giant announced in a statement on Saturday.
The group mainly intends to welcome booksellers, forced to close shop by the reconfinement, to whom it will offer space. “Auchan offers to open spaces for them, in its hypermarkets, in which they would have the opportunity to continue their advisory and order-taking role and deliver the books ordered by their own customers”, explains the group. “A storage area will also be offered to them”.
More broadly, it also intends to open its withdrawal counters to merchants who usually serve as deposits for parcels distributed by Mondial Relay messaging so that they can continue this specific activity.
The day before, it was the Monoprix chain, owned by the Casino group, which announced in the Figaro that it would welcome booksellers, florists, toy merchants and shoemakers in its stores. “Since we have the right to open, I consider that we have a duty to welcome traders who have the obligation to close”, declared the leader of Monoprix, Jean-Paul Mochet.
Indeed, supermarkets can continue to open because they sell essential products such as food. But they also offer products, such as clothes or toys, sold by businesses forced to close.
For its part, Auchan prefers to tackle another type of actor, also criticized by small traders: online commerce, of which the giant Amazon is the first representative.
It is “Do not allow a few digital platforms the monopoly on the sale of certain products considered as non-essential”, assured the French group, without naming a name.
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