The FNAC on the Champs-Élysées, overwhelmed by the crowds, postpones its destocking before its final closure

CONSUMPTION – A morning for nothing. There were several hundred, this Friday, January 3, wanting to take advantage of the liquidation of stocks at Fnac on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, which will definitively close the curtain in mid-January. However, due to the large crowds, the store had to close its doors.

The store opened its doors for around fifteen minutes around 10 a.m., before finally bringing out the customers and closing its gate, several people told an AFP journalist on site.

At midday, in front of a queue that continued to lengthen under a cold winter sun, store managers announced that it would remain closed all day and would not reopen until the following Monday.

“Please disperse”

“For the safety of goods and people, the store will remain closed all day. It will be open Monday. Please disperse”shouted a manager in front of a line that stretched for nearly 200 meters, to the boos of disappointed customers.

Questioned by AFP, the group indicated in the morning that a crowd movement had driven the store “to temporarily lower the curtain to regulate the flow”before subsequently confirming the closure of the store until Monday.

Fnac on the Champs-Elysées had announced that it was going to sell off its stocks until January 12 before closing permanently. Last March, the Fnac Darty group indicated that this store, “heavily in deficit”was going to close its doors, without impact on employment.

According to the brand, the store located at 74 avenue des Champs-Élysées was confronted with “multiple difficulties”notably the increase “generalized fixed charges”starting with rent, and a drop in sales “due to a decreasing use of the neighborhood by the brand’s natural customer base”.

The group estimated the prospects “unfavorable”with “the increasingly marked orientation of the avenue towards luxury retail and international customers”.

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