After the lockdown, the French government postponed the dates of the 2020 summer sales to allow businesses to rebuild their cash flow with full prices.

“Encouraging” for some, “not a great year” for many, or even a real “disaster” for others… Merchants draw a mixed picture of the 2020 summer sales (soldes d’été) in France, which ended on Tuesday, August 11, in the unusual context of the coronavirus pandemic.

The summer 2020 sales? “What we were expecting, which is not a very great year”, sums up Christian Baulme, the president of the Ronde des Quartiers, which gathers some 1,300 businesses from Bordeaux (southwestern France).

However, “it’s been a long time since there has been a big year in the sales”. Between private sales, criticism of “fast fashion” and the global trend towards lower consumption, sales are becoming less and less popular.

But in this year of the Covid-19 pandemic, and after several months of reduced activity, merchants still believed it was a chance to bounce back.

READ ALSO – Consumption is picking up strongly in France: is it enough to boost economic growth?

The outcome? A mixed result, to say the least. A retailer of premium ready-to-wear clothing in the Parisian district of Les Halles draws up an “encouraging” evaluation of the sales in her store. She says that her customers have defied the “restrictive” health measures to treat themselves to a few items that some of them “cannot buy outside of the sales”.

But not far away, another shopkeeper looks up to the sky and sighs in his mask: “A disaster! Look how deserted Paris is, everyone’s gone on holiday…”

Usually, he can rely on foreign tourists, which are scarce this summer.

The sales usually start in June, but the government decided after the lockdown to postpone the date of the 2020 edition to give businesses a chance to get their cash flow back with full prices.

READ ALSO – Covid-19: Massive losses for French tourism, but there’s some hope

The scheme has not really benefited Parisian merchants. According to the capital’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, three-quarters of the 400 Parisian merchants it surveyed on the subject at the end of July found it disappointing.

This is not what Christian Baulme of the Ronde des Quartiers thinks: “the sales are back to their original concept, which is to sell off stocks, and they have allowed us to do so. So the ‘sales effect’ worked. Then it ran out of steam”.

A comment shared by Francis Palombi, head of the Confederation of French Traders. According to him, given the unique context, “the sales, whatever the date, could not be outstanding” in terms of sales.

And independent shops “could not, after two months of closure, go back to discounts of -50%,” he said on Monday on Europe 1 radio.

He believes that the result of the sales was “on average rather worse than last year, but not in all cases”. This means not in all regions, and not on all types of items.

👕👚 J-1 avant la fin des #soldes | Retours, livraisons, obligations d’affichages en magasin .. quels sont vos droits pendant les soldes ?
Toutes les infos 👉 https://t.co/nXM8EzIr2S pic.twitter.com/QifrWfb70v

— Ministère Économie, Finances, Relance (@Economie_Gouv) August 10, 2020

Emmanuel Le Roch, director-general of Procos, the Federation of Specialised Trade, says for example, that the major urban areas, where international tourists often stay, should have performed poorly compared to other regions, such as the Greater West, where many French tourists flocked this summer.

Some areas are also doing a little better, including “home furnishings and sports,” points out Emmanuel Le Roch.

READ ALSO – The French economy already lost over 600,000 jobs since January 1

In addition, fast-moving online businesses are doing well. However, Procos warns that “the growth in internet sales only makes up for a small part of the loss of business in brick and mortar stores”.

The focus is now on the start of the new school year in September and the government’s recovery plan. With a lot of uncertainty, Emmanuel Le Roch wonders: “How are we going to be confident enough to consume more than at the same time last year?”

This, along with “the Sword of Damocles that is the virus”…