Toulouse: why the Cristal market will be reduced on the boulevards
The Cristal open-air market will be reconfigured from January 2023. The stands will be moved to fill vacant spaces, thus giving way to a market reduced in length, but just as full.
A wind of change for one of Toulouse’s most emblematic markets, since its creation in 1941. The open-air Cristal market, on Boulevard de Strasbourg, will be reconfigured from January 1, 2023, delivered to a site smaller, but more “compact”. The measure was adopted during the municipal council on December 16, aimed at making this market, dislocated by the departure of a few exhibitors, “a unified and homogeneous space, without spatial discontinuity, so that customers can find the products they need,” says the municipality.
Thus, the objective is to “raise” the greengrocers to the vacant locations, but also to move the extension part of the market, that of the so-called “non-grocery” traders (cheese makers, delicatessens, etc.) to the “Concorde” islet. “. And all this, keeping the same number of exhibitors.
“From now on, the market will extend to rue des Chalets, but no further. We currently have 42 traders. We will not add others, except to replace those who are leaving”, specifies Alain Truffert, delegate of the Crystal market.
Save the activity of isolated exhibitors from the Crystal extension
The project is a godsend for the small number of exhibitors in the extension, sidelined on rue des Chalets since the implementation, two years ago, of a health protocol relating to the epidemic of Covid-19.
“The stands should no longer be arranged face to face. All the traders were therefore aligned. But those who were at the far end no longer had any visibility,” explains Alain Truffert.
The current configuration of the Crystal market has had a real impact on the activity of these workers, like Clément Xavier, who has seen his turnover plummet by half. “This can only be positive for us! If there hadn’t been this reconfiguration, I would have shut down, that’s for sure”, testifies the owner of the “Fromagie Xav”.
The Sunday market “Aux Herbes Aromatiques” will also be moved, facing the merchants of the Cristal extension.