French and Italian Retailers Count Costs After Second Protest Weekend

French retailers and their Italian counterparts spent the past weekend boarding up storefronts rather than selling into the holiday season, and the bill is still being counted. Nationwide on Saturday, 24 stores were looted and several damaged, according to the Interior Ministry — a sharp improvement on the 1,522 businesses affected during the Oct. 17 marches, when Trade Minister Serge Papin estimated more than 3,000 stores were damaged or looted. In Paris alone, local authorities tallied 451 vandalized retailers, 228 of them stripped bare.

The intervention was not subtle. France deployed 70,000 police officers and gendarmes, plus Sentinelle military personnel, RAID and GIGN commandos, helicopters and armored vehicles. Protests were banned outright in Lyon and Marseille, and Paris police rerouted the CGT-organized march at the last moment, citing retailer protection. Police made 1,314 arrests, roughly half the previous week's 2,628.

Turnout estimates diverged as they always do: the CGT counted 250,000 in Paris and 800,000 nationwide; the Interior Ministry put the figures at 110,000 and 410,000 respectively. Both sides agree participation was slightly down week on week. Some 500 people the ministry described as violent troublemakers clashed with police on the Cours de Vincennes in the late afternoon, hurling bottles; police answered with tear gas and water cannons. Clashes were also recorded in Lyon, Rennes, Nantes, Bordeaux, Nice and Marseille.

What does the second weekend change for store operations?

Precaution, not commerce, set the operating tempo. Apple closed all three Paris stores on Saturday; LVMH said it planned business as usual. On the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, roughly half of the stores were shielded behind metal curtains or chipboard panels.

Printemps closed its Lille store entirely and shortened hours elsewhere: the Nation branch in eastern Paris shut at 3 p.m., and the Boulevard Haussmann flagship closed 30 minutes early at 7:30 p.m. Stores in Marseille, Rouen, Nancy and Lyon also closed early. Galeries Lafayette kept all locations open but with reduced hours in eight cities including Bordeaux, Nantes and Toulouse.

Judith Jiguet, executive director of the French Retail Federation — whose members include Galeries Lafayette, Decathlon, Carrefour, E.Leclerc and Monoprix — said in a Sunday statement: "Compared with last Saturday, yesterday was a relief. But the precautions taken to protect shops and their staff are having an impact on business." Her verdict on the new normal was blunt: "Shutting shop or erecting barricades cannot become the new normal." The federation said it remains "particularly vigilant" ahead of Nov. 5, when French unions have called nationwide strikes.

Who pays for private security?

The sharpest commercial question of the week came from Paris police chief Patrice Faure, who advised store owners to close early, barricade windows, remove potential projectiles and, if possible, hire private security. David Lisnard, president of the Association of French Mayors, called the advice "an unacceptable admission of powerlessness."

"Shopkeepers pay for the repairs and pay taxes so that the state can ensure their security — yet they are now expected to pay a third time for private security," Lisnar wrote on X, adding that the first victims would be those on the lowest incomes. Faure apologized for a "clumsy" expression of support, insisted state protection "is not replaced but complemented," and ordered a 200-investigator task force pursuing looters through CCTV, forensic evidence and social media, plus a nightly curfew in sensitive areas including Place de la République and Les Halles.

Milan avoids a repeat, at a price

In Milan, where hooded groups had exploited student protests the previous weekend, retailers in the Golden Triangle, around the Duomo and San Babila, and along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Via Torino began barricading on Friday. Rinascente closed at 3 p.m. Saturday despite Mayor Giuseppe Sala's call to stay open; Adidas and Levi's among others posted "open" signs over plywood. Roughly 10,000 demonstrators marched peacefully, with no new looting. Clashes did occur in Turin, Bologna and Rome — where about 50 students among 4,000 protesters briefly broke into the Colosseum — and Florence police blocked access to Via Tornabuoni.

Marco Barbieri, general secretary of Confcommercio Milano, put first-weekend damage to Milan stores at more than 1 million euros, counting structural damage and lost sales from early closings. Half of local fashion stores closed Saturday, he said; restaurants and bars stayed open. "It seems that reason has prevailed in Milan," Barbieri noted, while flagging reputational as well as economic damage.

Independent retailers told local media they cannot sustain repeated early closings heading into the holiday quarter. With a nationwide strike called for Nov. 5, the sector's vigilance looks set to be tested again within the fortnight.