More and more French shopping centers are forced to control the health pass of their customers.
The capital's department stores and shopping centers are no exception.
The police headquarters thus deemed it necessary to apply restrictions on entry to certain establishments, despite an incidence rate of slightly less than 200 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Galeries Lafayette, Printemps Haussmann, BHV, Le Bon Marché, la Samaritaine, Italie 2, Beaugrenelle, Vill'up and Aéroville have been affected since Monday morning.
To read also: "We hope that Macron will return to the health pass": the demonstrators still determined
Taking advantage of the lull offered by the summer holidays, the department stores were able to fine-tune their organization.
At Galeries Lafayette, around ten agents are distributed to the different entrances to the store to ensure the smooth running of the day.
At La Samaritaine, three employees per gate were also assigned to control the pass.
Well-prepared stores and customers
Monday morning, the flow of customers was therefore absorbed without too much trouble.
Posters explaining the new controls have sprung up on the doors of establishments that demonstrate pedagogy.
When the queue of customers gets longer, the staff of the Samaritaine also thinks of dividing the visitors between the two entrances of the store.
In most cases, the check takes only a few seconds.
An antigenic testing tent has been set up in front of the entrance "
to allow those who do not have the pass to access the stores
", according to the student in charge of the samples.
Posters explaining the entry into force of the health pass now adorn the facades of department stores.
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Customers are accommodating to the waiting time: "
It's normal, it takes time for it to be put in place
" confided two students, who also testified to their satisfaction, assured, thanks to the pass, that "
everything will happen. well, once inside
”.
A 50-year-old passing through the store also recognizes the smooth running of the operation: “
When you have our pass, that's not a constraint.
For the unvaccinated, it's more complicated,
”she concedes.
A little further on, a mother of a family expresses her dissatisfaction: "
The past makes things more complicated, it takes time and it does not always work
".
One-off complications, especially for foreign tourists
For customers who cannot present a QR Code in the correct format, or for tourists, however, things can get complicated. At the BHV, a sexagenarian had to wait five minutes before being able to enter. The cause of this elongated control? His QR code, printed in paper format, was not the right size. “
The security guard had to do it multiple times before he managed to scan my pass. Yet it is the document given by social security,
”she wonders.
At La Samaritaine, it is the anti-covid tests that are the problem. An unvaccinated young woman from Hauts-de-Seine decided to take advantage of the validity of her 72-hour test, "
to do whatever she had to do
" but was almost refused entry. . Indeed, the guards would have explained to him that "
only paper certificates were authorized to justify the validity of a test
", the electronic QR codes being reserved for the vaccinated persons. However, she is surprised not to have been informed of this subtlety. “The
security guard took the time to explain the situation to me because there were not too many people, but during busy periods, it will be a mess,
” she predicts.
In front of the Samaritaine, customers wait while waiting for their health pass to be checked.
Jean Gaboriau / Le Figaro
Finally, for foreign tourists, the application of the health pass has its share of surprises.
A Lebanese tourist, who arrived in Paris the day before, is surprised to be refused entry to La Samaritaine.
She hasn't thought about taking her health pass with her, and her anti-covid test is over a week old.
She will therefore have to come back another time, better prepared.
Some tourists have to be patient.
A young couple is thus put on the side of the queue at the entrance of the department store.
They will only be able to access the establishment after a few minutes of negotiation with three different security guards.
Read also: Fake health passes: how the police and health insurance track fraudsters
At Galeries Lafayette, a language travel guide confides that you have to have a little luck when you are a foreigner.
Of the 40 students she guides through Paris, the probability of encountering a problem is high and the possibility of entering or not "
therefore depends on the person on whom you come across at the entrance
".
Dutch tourists, however, welcome a "
good initiative
", even if they were not aware of the device.
It will therefore take a little more time for tourists to the capital to get used to these new measures.
