Here are three examples of non-essential businesses whose managers use their imagination to maintain activity and a connection with their customers.
Le Molière, in Chartres.
Matthieu Deshayes, owner of several shops in Chartres, created his own platform, which he called “comme-o-restaurant.com”. It houses two restaurants (the Molière and the Jehan), as well as a pastry shop (the Chartres pastry shop). Customers can order the products of their choice there, then come and collect them or have them delivered to their home (free from € 50).
“To allow our customers to have a moment of conviviality at home, since they can no longer have it in the restaurant.”
Matthieu Deshayes (empty)
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“We designed this platform at the beginning of May, at the end of the first containment,” explains Matthieu Deshayes. “To allow our customers to have a moment of conviviality at home, since they can no longer have it in the restaurant, while not using national or international platforms. We offer them a selection of dishes and menus, made from seasonal and almost all local products, depending on arrivals ”.
In Chartres, restaurateurs call on residents to support their take-away service
Isabelle hairstyle and aesthetics, in Louillard.
Hairdresser for 15 years on avenue Maurice-Maunoury, in Louillard, Isabelle Brûlé had to resolve to close her salon once again when the second confinement was announced. “I barely got my head out of the water,” she says. “I did not pay myself a salary for five months to ensure that of my four employees and the payment of my rent”.
It was while talking with her employees that she had the idea of offering her customers “coloring kits and other essential products”, to be picked up at the door of her store.
“I barely got my head out of the water”
“During the first confinement, the living room was completely closed. They bought color kits in supermarkets, and there were quite a few setbacks… ”, explains Isabelle Brûlé. And it is really to help them out that she made this choice, since she does not cash any money. “Either my clients deposit me a check, which I will cash when I reopen, or they will pay me when they return to the salon.”
Reconfinement: the Relais de Beauce in Ymonville, the only truck stop in Eure-et-Loir to serve the drivers, warm, at the table
Trends and Harmonies, in Courville-sur-Eure.
Anita Met, the manager of a decoration, tableware and gifts store, rue Carnot, in Courville-sur-Eure, had taken advantage of her two months of closure, during the first confinement, to create (with the help from his son, a computer technician) his own website, as well as pages linked to his site on Facebook and Instagram.
“Internet, it takes away a lot of relationship”
Well, he took it because during this second confinement, it allows him to maintain a link with his customers, and to make sales in “call and recover”. “I have the right to receive my clients at my doorstep”.
“It’s better than nothing, but the Internet takes away a lot of relationships,” says Anita Met. “Already, part of my clientele is not connected. And then, all the advice I give to my customers in-store no longer exists, especially for technical products. Finally, on the Internet, customers do not have the little crush they had in store ”.
Anita Met is still very grateful to her customers. “They are very loyal and they support me”.
Helpless in the face of inequalities. Romain and Lucie Honoré, managers of the CréAttitude store in Barjouville, cry injustice. “If we do not reopen by the end of the year, it is not certain that we will be able to reopen”: the observation made by Romain and Lucie Honoré, managers of the creative leisure store CréAttitude, is clear and clear . And it is accompanied by a strong feeling of injustice: “We had to close our store for the second time, even though we did everything to respect the barrier gestures”. This is what they wrote to Guillaume Kasbarian, deputy, to Jean-Pierre Gorges, mayor of Chartres and president of Chartres Métropole, and to Benoît Delatouche, mayor of Barjouville.
“It is quite normal that food stores remain open. But why is it possible to buy in supermarkets and on the Net, products that we are forbidden to sell? We are helpless in the face of inequalities ”.
The couple have reinstated an order pick-up service, just to keep in touch with their customers. “During the first confinement, we achieved barely 1% of the turnover that we should have done in normal times”.
Two employees will send an open letter to their elected officials. It is not only local traders who speak out against the closure imposed on them by the State. Individuals too. Gilbert and Anne Tenèze, two retirees from education, aged 73 and 71 respectively, left Paris to come and live in Villages-Vovéens 10 years ago.
“The village spirit that reigned at the time had us excited,” recalls Gilbert Tenèze. “Non-food and non-essential businesses, those that support our villages, must close,” the couple said indignantly. “Our local businesses are losing ground and risk closing their curtain once and for all. However, they are the heart of our social life, while the peripheral businesses of large groups remain open without major restrictions ”.
Gilbert Tenèze, his wife and some friends wrote an open letter petition. “We have already filled a dozen sheets,” says Gilbert Tenèze. “We will let our elected officials know the success of our signature campaign. And we will not stop there. We will go higher if they do not move ”.
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Philippe Dubois
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