Every day, Le Parisien takes action to answer your questions about the coronavirus. Today we are interested in Brigitte's questioning who wonders if the tobacco shops can always remain open and for what reasons.
The tobacconists always have the right to remain open despite the containment put in place on March 17. In fact, "retail businesses selling tobacco products" appear in the list published by decree. We therefore consider that cigarettes are part of the “basic necessities” that we can always go out to buy.
"Yes, we remain open and I do not see what could change that," says Parisian Philippe Coy, president of the Confederation of tobacconists. Some preferred to close the shop by themselves: of the 24,000 points of sale in France, 20,000 are open and 80% of them "have flexible schedules and close earlier, for example," adds the manager.
Tobacco, newspapers, banking services…
Tobacco shops don't just sell packs of cigarettes. 60% of them also distribute newspapers and many provide banking services linked to the “Nickel” account. These other activities (“newspaper trade” and “financial activities”) also appear in the list of authorized activities, all the more reason for the tobacconists to remain open.
On the other hand, all the tobacco merchants who also acted as drink sellers had to stop selling them. Sometimes a physical separation between the room and the sales counter has been installed.
Philippe Coy also ensures that each commercial screen in tobacconists has been made available to the authorities to enable it to display a reminder of the health rules to follow.
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