MARSEILLE: Corinne INNESTI: “The merchants and artisans of the city center are at their wit’s end”!
After months and months of upheavals linked to the successive crises of yellow vests, pensions and Covid 19, the players in the city center are suffering the full brunt of the anti-pass demonstrations and the accompanying transport suspensions, in particular Saturdays, and undergo the new strike of the garbage collectors.
For traders and artisans in downtown Marseille, the cup is full. They are calling for emergency measures to put an end to these repeated disturbances. It is now for them a question of survival as Christmas approaches.
· Cleanliness, accessibility and safety… for downtown merchants there is an urgent need to act!
Merchants in downtown Marseille are at their wit’s end in the face of the various disruptions from which they are suffering the consequences. They have been alerting and showing their dismay for months. With the support of the CCIAMP, the traders and artisans represented by the CPME13 are calling on the State, the Town Hall and the Metropolis to come to an agreement to put an end to these disorders. After active consultation meetings, it is clear that the situation is not improving much. Collective solutions must be found in the very short term in order to finally be able to work in a serene atmosphere.
Merchants no longer want demonstrations in the city center on Saturdays
After 18 weekends of mobilization of anti-health pass, traders say stop to these demonstrations which take place in the city center and impact their activity. They demand that the demonstrators no longer pass in the pedestrian streets and / or demonstrate on Sundays.
“These weekly parades discourage customers from coming to the city center and directly impact our turnover. Our businesses are extremely fragile. On average, we have recorded a 40% loss in turnover compared to 2019, and sometimes even up to 60%! The drop in our income is staggering ”, notes Luc-Gabriel Mengual, manager of Jean-Louis David stores.
Service disruptions to 37 RTM lines on event days
The Prefecture orders the RTM to suspend the lines that serve the city center on days of demonstrations. Faced with this disproportionate precaution, which is seen as one more obstacle to their activity, traders demand an end to the requisitions for the cessation of RTM traffic when the demonstrations are not declared.
The mobilization of the national and municipal police forces to issue a ticket on the city’s commercial axes
The feeling of insecurity is a recurring criticism of the Marseillais who avoid the city center. Tired, store managers are calling for solutions, including the deployment of law enforcement officers and the implementation of reinforced security measures during this holiday season. Support that reassures customers and traders to relieve themselves of the weight of threatening worry.
The immediate demands of traders to save the holidays
Social conflicts impact not only traders and artisans in the city center, but also the entire local economy. All sectors are concerned, starting with restaurateurs and cafetiers, whose drop in attendance is also worrying in a again tense health context.
Various associations of traders have been trying, for weeks, to instill a dynamic to bring customers back to the city center for Christmas shopping. However, a few days before waking up on the evening of the 24th, the situation is extremely critical for traders, who have repeatedly expressed their distress with decision-makers. Their energy, their positivism and their desire to have reached their limits in the face of a difficult situation.
Questioned in recent days by CPME 13, shop managers are demoralized and angry. Since the last confinement, they have indeed worked for not having to relive an end of the year like that of 2020, but the consequences of repeated social conflicts, translate into a slow agony, hence the urgency of ” take action to ensure the survival of their businesses. And if they express understanding in the face of the arduousness of the job of garbage collector, they want the agents to show responsibility and not jeopardize an entire local economy.
2020 and 2021 will have been two psychologically and economically trying years.
Mandatory closures, distancing measures, demonstrations – authorized or not – and recurring, and finally, the household refuse collection strike !!
Merchants in downtown Marseille deserve credit for having adorned their windows, and for trying to give an air of celebration in such an atmosphere. The CCIAMP launched a warning cry last week, the City of Marseille, the Metropolis and the Prefecture who attended these meetings became aware of the gravity of the situation. It is now necessary that the Metropolis and the unions of employees come out of this impasse and finally allow the Marseillais to prepare these festivals with dignity. Otherwise, some brands will not be able to recover financially. Let us not forget that every Saturday afternoon is sacrificed on the altar of various claims! “, Insists Nicole Richard-Verspieren, Vice-President Commerce of CPME13.
“The traders and artisans of the city center were barely emerging from a difficult situation, in a context of reopening after the health crisis. The State has ceased aid and the logic of “whatever the cost”, while companies are soon called upon to repay the first drafts of loans guaranteed by the State which they contracted during the crisis “, underlines Corinne Innesti, president of CPME 13.
“They did not deserve this new double penalty, which is intended to be both financial and psychological”, completes the president.