FRENCH NEWS ♦ 3
DECEMBER 2020 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu
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Black Friday sales postponed
Brittany Ferries to restart Portsmouth to Cherbourg route credit: Brittany Ferries
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n the face of growing pressure the Black Friday sales were delayed last month by one week after representatives for small business owners reached an agreement with large retailers and online platforms. Originating in the US, where the event takes place on the day after the Thanksgiving holiday, the Black Friday sales have become a consumer phenomenon across the world in recent years. The sales extravaganza had been due to begin on Friday 27th November, but with the country's “non-essential” shops still closed due to the national lockdown, there was significant pressure to move the date. In the early days of the second lockdown, supermarkets and other “grandes surfaces” were permitted to stay open for everyday essentials, but were also allowed to sell other goods such as clothes, toys and shoes. Unions for shopping centres and smaller retailers collectively published an open letter calling on the government to allow sales of “essential products only” during confinement, as well as demanding the cancellation of online Black Friday sales in France. “The measures taken to control the virus will only increase the scandalous inequality of treatment that already exists between physical shops and online retailers, to the peril of the former and exclusive profit of the latter,” the group said. “They do the same job as us. They sell goods and services to consumers, and so the same rules should be applied to them, starting with the closure of sales judged non-essential,” said Jacques Ehrmann,
Est. in France since 2004
president of the Conseil national des centres commerciaux (CNCC). “The government has shown it knows how to close aisles in bookshops and hypermarkets. I do not see why they are not in a position to act against Amazon and its consorts for Black Friday.” The government swiftly brought in a ban on the sale of items deemed nonessential in supermarkets, but online sales remained possible and there was no update on the timing of Black Friday. Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, president of the Medef union which represents small and medium businesses, initially rejected any movement, saying that it was “not reasonable” to expect shopkeepers to delay Black Friday at such a late date. “Everything is possible, but not nine days before. Supermarkets have prepared their catalogues, and everyone is talking a lot
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about Amazon, but there are plenty of French businesses that have prepared their sales.” Eventually, the online giants and traditional retailers appeared to reach a compromise and representatives signed an agreement at the Ministry of the Economy, to delay the flash sales by one week, on the understanding that small businesses would be open by that date. At the time of the agreement, no official announcement had been made on the end of the lockdown and on when non-essential shops could once again open their doors. Following Macron's announcement, however (see front page), the sales will now begin on December 4th. The date is an important one in the retail calendar – in 2019, a total of €6 billion was spent by the French public during the Black Friday sales. ■
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fter a difficult year, Brittany Ferries has recently taken delivery of its first new ship since 2009 and plans to re-open the Cherbourg to Portsmouth route. Hard-hit by Covid-19 and subsequent quarantine rules, the company was forced to stop serving the route earlier this year, but the eco-friendly ferry will now re-start the Channel crossing once a week from as early as December. The Galicia is powered by liquified natural gas and has a number of other innovative features aimed at reducing its impact on the environment. The ship, which was built in China and has now passed berthing trials and other pre-service checks, will be joined in service by its sister ships Salamanca and Santoña in 2022 and 2023. “I'm delighted to welcome Galicia to the city on behalf of the people of Portsmouth,” said Mike Sellers, director of the Portsmouth International Port, which is currently home to the new vessel. “2020 has been a challenging year for us all, so it's great to be able to look to the future positively.” Although the new ferry is currently based in the UK, the company has said it will eventually be moved to a French port, in line with their policy of registering long-term fleet members in France. ■
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