"Help yourself, heaven will help you" ... The moral of La Fontaine's fable, "Le Charretier embourbé", reflects quite well the state of mind of the few traders met this Thursday morning.
Busy to stock the shelves one week before Christmas, they say they are not expecting any new help from the municipality.
"No measure will compensate for the three months of activity lost during the two confinements of 2020", observes this leatherworker installed in the Marais for 45 years.
The possibility of exhibiting the merchandise on the sidewalk granted free of charge by the Town Hall?
“It's a very good idea but it's not practical at all because it requires monitoring,” replies the leather bag merchant who prefers to do without an exterior display.
And to add: "The problem is the absence of tourists who account for half of my turnover".
As for the curfew, “closing at 8 pm is a bit early!
We would have preferred 9 pm ”, he confides.
"There is no longer anyone in the street from 7.45 pm"
Formerly open until 9 p.m., the grocery store on rue du Temple now closes an hour earlier.
"It would be pointless to stay later because from 7:45 p.m., there is no one in the streets", notes the seller who estimates "30-50%" the drop in turnover for 2020 compared to 2019.
Manager of a ready-to-wear store on rue de Turenne (3rd arrondissement), this sixty-year-old pleads for “a measure that would cost the City nothing: restore parking spaces.
Over the past two years, I have lost 30% of my clients who came by suburban car.
Not to mention the closure of the rue de Rivoli to motorists ”.
Put pressure on insurance companies!
While acknowledging that "the State, with partial unemployment and the solidarity fund, is doing its utmost to help us", Jean-Philippe Nikoghossian, owner of the La Perle brewery (IIIe), affirms: "It is now time that the state - which decreed this administrative closure which prevents us from working - is pressuring insurance companies to play their role.
And finally agree to compensate us for the damage suffered, given that the risk of an epidemic is covered by the contracts ”.