Six masked figures wielded a road barrier as a battering ram against the windows of the Louis Vuitton boutique on Paris’s upscale Place Vendôme on Saturday, cheered on by dozens of black-clad figures. The looters never made it inside, but it was close. “We have specialist windows that held, but mostly we were lucky,” said an employee of the luxury brand. “It’s sad. These were not protesters but people who had only come out to break things and steal.” Other retailers were less fortunate during a weekend of rioting and looting across France, which followed protests about underfunded schools and the cost of living.
In Paris, stores along main arteries such as the Champs-Élysées are used to barricading their storefronts ahead of protests or sports celebrations that may turn violent, while authorities often ask construction sites to secure materials. However, preparations for the most recent protests appear to have broken down because they did not follow the usual choreography between unions and police. Law enforcement was quickly overrun on Saturday. “We could see the police getting backed down the street by the mob,” said a Dior employee, whose shop on Paris’s Rue Royale was spared after employees brought down security shutters at about 4pm.
Across the road, the windows of a Ralph Lauren store were smashed and a Kenzo boutique was looted. “I don’t understand how the police were so unprepared. My kids have social media and they seemed to know it was going to be war out there this weekend,” the Dior employee added. A Burberry boutique was among the other targets in Paris, while Louis Vuitton and Hermès stores in Marseille were looted.
An outlet of jeweller Graff on Paris’ Place Vendôme was closed on Monday, its windows smashed, while a Dior boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré was trading but its facade disfigured by anti-police slogans and other graffiti. Authorities are now working to stop looted goods being resold online. Ministers met on Monday with resale platforms including Vinted, Amazon, eBay, Meta and TikTok to discuss removing suspicious listings and identifying sellers.
Some luxury goods also carry either unique serial numbers or chips that could help match stolen items to inventories. “Since this weekend, our teams have acted immediately to identify and remove listings that may be related to stolen goods, and we have strengthened our monitoring of suspicious listings,” Vinted said on Monday. “We are actively collaborating with law enforcement and French authorities.” Other big retailers were targeted. Branches of sportswear group JD Sports were ransacked, as were about 20 Sephora beauty stores across the country and an Apple store in Lille. In central Paris, a Tesla showroom was defaced with slogans accusing founder Elon Musk of being a Nazi.
A nearby Société Générale bank branch was closed, its door splattered with pink paint and the words “Screw the RN” — a reference to the far-right Rassemblement National party — and “Screw it all!” emblazoned on boarded-up windows. Committees representing businesses on the Champs-Élysées, Saint-Honoré, Vendôme and other upscale areas of Paris said they “condemned in the strongest terms the violence and degradation of property that occurred this weekend” and called for “a rapid and massive deployment of police forces” to protect businesses.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing