By Alessandro Parodi
PARIS, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Luxury boutiques in France boarded up their normally glitzy shopfronts and hired private security ahead of fresh protests on Saturday, with some planning to stay closed after rioters looted stores across the country last weekend.
France, the world’s most visited country, attracts large numbers of overseas shoppers seeking Chanel handbags and Hermes scarves, an important source of revenue for luxury brands grappling with slowing demand.
But some decided staying open was too risky after last week’s unrest, when rioters smashed and looted hundreds of shops in Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux.
A Rolex retailer and a De Beers store near Paris’ Place Vendome will remain closed on Saturday, staff said, while managers at stores including Richemont-owned IWC said they would decide whether to close early depending on the scale of the protests.
Signs on the heavily boarded-up windows of Adidas and Boss stores on the Champs Elysees informed customers they would be closed, while employees at Swatch Group stores said they would shut early.
A Lacoste store was entirely covered by metal cages after suffering what a staff member described as “enormous” damage last week. A café owned by the brand was completely boarded up.
Groups including France’s main student union, UNEF, and the Yellow Vest movement, which emerged as a powerful anti-establishment force in 2018, plan to march through central Paris later on Saturday to protest against high living costs and cuts to public services.
Near the Arc de Triomphe, tourists photographed boarded-up stores and restaurants as they tried to take selfies beneath the landmark before the protests begin.
Hotel staff said they were advising worried guests on the protest route and areas to avoid, leaving major tourist streets largely empty despite a heavy police and private security presence.
NOT IN THE MOOD
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Friday that 70,000 police officers, backed by specialist units, would be deployed to prevent a repeat of last week’s violence.
But staff at LVMH brands Louis Vuitton, Dior and Bulgari said they were taking no chances and security at their stores near Place Vendome had been increased. The group had also deployed additional private security to patrol high-end shopping districts, several employees said.
Nearby department store Printemps has also increased its security staff, carried out repairs and reinforced shop windows and entrances, a spokesperson said.
Hermes finance chief Eric du Halgouet said this week the company had strengthened security at its French stores, adding it was too early to assess the impact of recent events on business.
The image-conscious industry can ill afford further negative publicity. Consumer sentiment is gloomy worldwide and tourism is slowing as a result of the Iran war, contributing to disappointing quarterly results this month from LVMH, Hermes and Kering.
Lidiya Shevchenko, a sales assistant at a Graziella Braccialini store, said she doubted many people would be looking to visit stores anyway during the protests.
“I suppose the mood is just as important when it comes to shopping,” Shevchenko said.
One tourist already thinking twice is Cambodian Jerry Lay, who purchased several items from Louis Vuitton on the Champs-Élysées earlier this week.
“We do enjoy shopping in France, but after experiencing the protest (last Saturday), I’d say it’s 50/50 whether I would consider coming back next time,” Lay said.
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi in Paris. Editing by Dominique Patton, Rosalba O’Brien and Mark Potter)
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