The store, which planned to sell its stocks from January 3 until its final closure on the 12th, opened its doors on Friday for a little over an hour before bringing out the customers and closing its gate.
The Fnac store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, in financial difficulty, has closed permanently. It will not reopen its doors to liquidate its stocks as initially planned, the Fnac Darty group announced this Saturday, January 4.
The store, which planned to sell its stocks from January 3 until its final closure on January 12, opened its doors on Friday for a little over an hour, according to the group, before bringing out the customers and closing its gate. .
At midday, in front of a queue that stretched nearly 200 meters, store managers finally announced that it would remain closed all day and would not reopen until Monday, in order to ensure “safety goods and people. The group finally decided on Saturday to lower the curtain for good.
“Ensuring security and order”
“Faced with a very large crowd in front of the store this Friday, January 3 and in order to ensure safety and order on the public highway, Fnac Champs-Élysées was forced to permanently close its doors in the morning,” indicated Fnac Darty in a press release.
In March, the group indicated that this store, “heavily loss-making”, would close its doors, without impact on employment.
“All store employees have received an offer of a position identical to the one occupied, under the same salary conditions and within another Fnac store in Paris, which they will be able to join in the coming days,” he said. -he underlined in the press release.
Heavy finances
In a right of alert addressed to the management of Fnac and relayed by the Syndicat Commerce Indépendant Démocratique, with a copy to the labor inspectorate and the Agence France-Presse (AFP), an employee denounced on Friday the implementation danger” to “the safety of employees and customers”.
“No effective measures” had been planned, according to this employee, in the face of the “unanticipated massive influx”, up to 3,000 people, and the formation of a very long, “disorganized” queue.
He also cites a “dangerous entrance to the store” and an “unsuitable configuration”, with a risk of “crushing” or “jostling”. Finally, according to the document, unprepared employees had to face “mass discontent.”
According to Fnac Darty, the store located at 74, avenue des Champs-Élysées was weighed down by the “generalized increase in fixed charges”, starting with the rent, and a drop in sales, faced with “the increasingly marked by the avenue towards luxury retail and international customers.
