Reconfinement: in Créteil Soleil, the rush of "last-minute shopping"

Crowded shopping aisles, packed parking lots, packed restaurants.

The relative calm of recent months at the Créteil Soleil shopping center (Val-de-Marne) gave way to a real effervescence this Thursday, October 29, a few hours before the start of the second confinement linked to the Covid-19 epidemic.

“It's our

shopping

.

And, psychologically, we needed to make this outing before having to stay locked up again ”, testify Marion and Sonia, two friends of Maisons-Alfort, taking advantage of this final breath of fresh air in the fourth shopping center in France on more frequented, with 21 million visitors per year.

The two young women notably scoured the clothing stores, "Mango, Zara, Bershka, Primark ...", which will be closed from Friday.

"We said to ourselves: it's today or never!"

A little further, the queue stretches for several tens of meters in front of the Franck Provost hairdressing salon.

"And it's been like that since this morning!"

Never seen before, ”confided two salespeople from the neighboring store, Pandora jewelry.

The countdown is on before the lowering of their iron curtain: “The first confinement had already made us miss Mother's Day, a very big period for us.

There, we will miss Black Friday at the end of November.

So we hope to have the authorization to reopen in early December, three weeks before Christmas, to catch up a little, they explain.

But it is bad for good.

We have to go through this to fight the epidemic.

During the spring confinement, they had received their entire salary.

"Pandora had taken charge of the supplement so that we touch 100%", they appreciate.

In an alley, Ludivine and Cyrille have their arms loaded with bags.

“We had items to exchange.

We said to ourselves: “It's today or never!

»Explains the couple from Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.

Clothes, shoes, articles for their children… But no anticipated Christmas gifts: “Usually, we buy in toy stores, but this year, we will buy on the Internet and we will have it delivered.

The online shopping system for toys looks pretty good.

"

"It's not a legend… People are crazy"

Créteil-Soleil, Thursday, October 29.

The rice, pasta, flour and toilet paper departments were emptied, restocked, refilled immediately… LP / Marine Legrand  

At Carrefour, the huge hypermarket is crowded with people.

“Usually, there is not a cat at this hour,” confides a regular.

The carts are overflowing, the queues at the checkouts are getting longer, the salespeople are at the cleat.

"We knew it would be the rush, but not at this point," says a cashier.

The pasta, rice, flour and toilet paper departments are emptied, restocked and emptied immediately.

“It's not a legend you only see on TV;

people are crazy, ”says a saleswoman in a food department, amazed.

A mother has stocked up on gluten-free pasta, not always easy to find, so she took her precautions: “This is our first confinement, we were living abroad during the previous one.

You can really feel the anxiety in people.

I wonder how it will turn out… ”

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One of the opticians at the mall reassures a worried customer: “We'll stay open, you know.

Maybe only by appointment, of course, but we'll be there.

We are considered a staple store.

"It will be the same for the Carrefour hypermarket, pharmacies and telephone signs, announced the management of the center, Thursday afternoon, awaiting possible additions with the publication of the decrees.

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Other customers approach this new episode more calmly behind closed doors: "It's our last shopping trip for several weeks so we take pleasure in visiting all the stores: clothes, jewelry, etc.", smile Laurena and Agnès, from Viry-Châtillon. and Grigny en Essonne, who came with their daughters to survey the 136,000 m2 of Créteil Soleil and treat themselves to a last lunch at the restaurant… all together, reunited.