"It's death, it's the guillotine," says Arizki, serving a customer in fruit and vegetables. It is almost 12:30 p.m., he must close the shop, to comply with the prefectoral decree which requires merchants in the neighborhood to open only 4 hours a day.
A few minutes later, police and city hall security agents check that all the shops have closed properly: "At 12:30 pm, the curtain is down," said an officer.
Since March 26, the date of the first prefectural decree, the daily life of sellers in this popular district of the 18th arrondissement has been completely upset. "80% of our customers come in the afternoon, […] so this closure is very complicated" sums up Mounir, who has been running three shops on rue Poulet for more than 20 years.
Kilos of vegetables in the trash
About one in three days, Mounir and his colleagues have to throw hundreds of kilos of unsold vegetables in the trash. Today, it is mainly mangoes and red peppers. "Peppers are € 2.50 per kilo at Rungis, each pallet is 5 kg" explains Mounir.
The crates pile up almost two meters high, thousands of euros lost for this trader.