Socialist France forces stores to close early

Champs Elysées in Paris.

With unemployment high, France forces

stores to close early

The French like to refer to the Champs Elysées in Paris as "the most beautiful avenue in the world," and 300,000 people stroll up and down it every day to see for themselves, many of them tourists looking to shop.

No surprise, then, to find that retailers from Nike to LVMH are willing to pay premium rents for space on the avenue, which runs in a straight line from the Place de la Concorde up to the triumphal arch at Etoile.

Just don't try to buy anything in the evening.

This week a Paris court of appeal ordered the cosmetics chain Sephora to close its flagship store on the avenue at 9 p.m., rather than staying open until midnight during the week and until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays reports Reuters News.

It was the latest ruling over store-closing hours that has already forced several other big name retailers in Paris both on and off the avenue to close early, including Apple, France's Monoprix and the Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo. Two other stores on the Champs Elysées, Abercrombie and Fitch and perfumer Marionnaud, are also facing legal action.

France has a raft of regulations governing shopping, and its labor unions ensure that they are strictly enforced. As well as strict limits on opening and closing hours, the rules only allow sales during certain periods of the year, price promotions are circumscribed, loss leaders are illegal, store sizes are limited and even the types of shops allowed to open up are regulated.

The Swedish clothing retailer H&M fought a long legal battle against the Paris city authorities before it won permission in 2008 to open on the Champs Elysées; City Hall vetoed the plan on the grounds that it was one clothing store too many, and would change the character of the avenue. The issue was finally decided in H&M's favor by the Conseil d'Etat, the nation's highest administrative court.

The cosmetics chain Sephora reckons it does about 20 percent of its business after 9 p.m., and the 50 sales staff who work the late shift do so voluntarily — and are paid an hourly rate that is 25 percent higher than the day shift. Many of them are students or part-time workers, and they have publicly expressed their indignation about being put out of work by labor unions.

26% Youth Unemployment
Youth unemployment in France is above 26%, more than double the national rate. In many urban areas and in certain rural areas, youth unemployment tops 40%.  When confronted by unemployment, the insane Socialists of France say close stores at night and put even more people out of work.

French Socialism
Why work when the government sends you money?