Dec 24, 2015 With Christmas just a few hours away, shop owners in Paris are beginning to experience a slight rebound in shopping activity in the aftermath of the Paris attacks in November.
In response to the attacks, the French government has declared a state of emergency and deployed thousands of police and military forces in sensitive areas of Paris, including around department stores.
The tense atmosphere notwithstanding, Pierre Pellarey, General Manager of the Printemps department store said the store is beginning to see a small increase in sales.
“A slight rebound obviously, a slight rebound because we were around minus 30% for the first week and it improved over the weeks to reach this weekend approximately minus 10%. So a slight rebound but also compared to the January events, we can notice that this rebound is slower than in January. January is the sales time but now is also an important business time because it is the end of the year and we notice a small change in consumers’ and clients’ behaviour after these (November) events and recovery takes longer,”
Away from the gloominess of the attacks, the Christmas season and the festive atmosphere has indeed brought back brightness to the city of lights.