Dirty times for confined smokers. The tobacconists - yet authorized to continue their activity like the other managers of "essential" businesses - close one after the other in Paris. According to professional assessments, half of the 750 or so outlets in the capital have already lowered the curtain. And addicts to cigarettes (whose consumption has tended to increase for 10 days) are starting to have difficulty restocking.
"I did the whole neighborhood, this is the sixth I try, phew! Says a resident of the Jordan district (20th century) who has finally found a tobacco store open in the rue des Pyrénées. In front of the Marigny, at 5 pm, the queue stretches: safety distances oblige, the thirty buyers line up over a good fifty meters…
"In this stressful period, we smoke more than usual"
Among them, José, 50 years old. Employed in a central kitchen that delivers to the elderly, he still works. But he assures him: “on my way to go to Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis), there is no longer an open tobacco, it's crazy! So I come here. "
Two weeks before confinement, planning, he had stockpiled: 6 cartridges for him and his wife. "There are only two left, and in this stressful period we smoke more than usual," he explains, speaking of maintaining the opening of tobacco as a ... public health measure. "Imagine, if people run out of cigarettes, they will kill each other!" "
At the beginning of the week, the Seine-et-Marne center of Logista-France (exclusive distributor of tobacco) which supplies all shops in the Paris region counted 45% of points of sale closed. This figure has grown since then. The distribution channels of the establishment - whose automatic responder invites the tobacconists "forced to close following the health crisis" to warn in case of delivery to cancel - yet still operate almost 100%.
Many tobacconists of Asian origin closed by prudence even before confinement
"We have no supply problem," confirms Bernard Gasq, president of the federation of tobacconists of Ile-de-France. "If so many colleagues close, it is simply because they feel that they have neither the means nor the equipment necessary to work without endangering their health. We can understand them, "he explains, adding that almost half of the tobacconists in Ile-de-France are of Asian origin.
“They were the first to confine themselves. Apparently, messages of alerts and calls to caution circulate a lot on Wechat (Editor's note: the social network n ° 1 in the Chinese community) ", indicates Bernard Gasq who underlines that some had already lowered the curtain before the announcement containment. “Because of the stigma of the Asian community that appeared from the start of the epidemic. Some colleagues have even received threatening letters! "
What is the point of opening when most of the turnover came from the bar?
Beyond the "health" aspect of the problem, the representatives of tobacconists put forward another reason for the progressive closure of tobacco shops: a question of "cash". What good is it to remain open in business districts (as in the 8th district for example) where the clientele, in telework, has simply disappeared. For half of the Parisian tobaccos which are attached to a café-bar (the “wet tobaccos” in the jargon of the profession) the blow is all the harsher since the main part of the turnover came from the “bar” part. »Now prohibited from opening.
“Tobacco is a commissioned product. The tobacconist receives about 8% of the price. But marginal products are next door, in the part that can no longer be opened, ”recalls Philippe Alauze, secretary general of the union chamber of tobacconists. However, he decided to continue to open his tobacco store in Maisons-Alfort (Val-de-Marne) despite the compulsory closure of the adjoining hotel-restaurant-bar. "The triple penalty," he jokes bitterly.
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For the past ten days, he has spent his days keeping watch over the tobacco store (to check that customers are coming in one by one) and answering customers who call him, sometimes from afar, to find out if he is open. The only (small) consolation for the tobacconist: “I see customers coming back that we no longer saw in our points of sale. Those who bought their supplies from street vendors (Editor's note: whose activity is continuing but at a slower pace) or when traveling abroad ", he concludes by recalling that the" parallel "market represented, before the health crisis , almost a third of cigarette sales.
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