Innumerable boutiques and grocery stores, sporting goods stores, ready-to-wear shops, luxury stores, and mobile phone shops were looted and vandalized across France on Saturday afternoon, sometimes—as in Paris—kilometers away from the authorized protests against the high cost of living. "The toll is going to be heavy, everywhere in the country," Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu commented shortly before midnight, assuring that he had "given instructions to the various ministers so that we stand alongside those who have lost their economic means." Trade Minister Serge Papin quickly assured "all affected merchants" on X that "we are mobilized at Bercy to help you."
The looting began around Place de la République in the capital, the site of intense tensions with law enforcement, where, seemingly unconcerned by the presence of cameras, youths attacked numerous stores, smashing windows before clearing out their merchandise. This was the case for a Monoprix, a McDonald's, and a little later, an SFR store, an Yves Rocher store, a Picard, a Carrefour City, a Franprix, and an Etam. A Kawasaki dealership was set on fire.
"Opportunistic delinquents"
The Socialist Mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, "firmly" condemned the "damage" and "acts of smashing" observed, even though "the vast majority of protesters" wished to "march peacefully." Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez denounced "opportunistic delinquents" before the press, assuring that everything would be done to find the perpetrators. "We have an enormous amount of video," he stated, predicting "more arrests" in the coming days. There were 1,200 arrests, and 150 police officers and gendarmes were injured, Sébastien Lecornu announced in the evening.
Among the cities targeted by this looting, the minister cited, in addition to Paris and Marseille, Strasbourg, Rouen, Nantes, Rennes, Toulouse, Pau, and Valence. But not only those. In the regions, in Lille, an Optic 2000 store, the Sephora on Grand Place, the Apple Store, and a Carrefour City were looted or ransacked, as well as a Banque Postale branch and even the store of the Lille football club, LOSC.
In Rennes, rioters targeted the Galeries Lafayette, an Orange store, an Afflelou optician, and a Starbucks; in Strasbourg, a Primark store; in Nancy, a sports brand; in Clermont-Ferrand, a Zara and a Nature et Découvertes. In Lyon, Boulanger (partially burned) and Nike stores, along with The Kooples, Hugo Boss, Vitton Clop, Jott, Lancel, and Sephora boutiques, were targeted. In Perpignan, the Sephora store was also cleaned out. In Nantes, the Foot Locker, Courir, and Fnac brands were targeted, while in Bordeaux, Decathlon, Intersport, the Apple Store, and a Carrefour Express were hit.
"We were super scared"
The list is not exhaustive, and throughout the day, social media showed even more looting against brands geared toward products popular with young people: H&M, Micromania, Swarovski, etc. Around 6:00 p.m., Clémence, a florist in Lyon interviewed on BFMTV, was still holding one of the cobblestones that had smashed her storefront, "already broken during the yellow vests." "They came in from all sides, and no matter how much we said we were just florists, unfortunately, they don't care. We had nowhere to go, and we were super scared," she recounted, saying she felt "sickened."
The large retail sector reacted sharply on Saturday evening. Alexandre Bompard, president of the Federation of Commerce and Distribution and CEO of Carrefour, "condemned in the strongest possible terms" this looting on LinkedIn. The head of Les Mousquetaires/Intermarché, Thierry Cotillard, said he was "deeply angry," also on LinkedIn, accompanying his message with two photos of devastated Intermarché stores. "I cannot resign myself to seeing what we are collectively building destroyed in this way, and I know that this concern is shared by many entrepreneurs," wrote Thierry Guibert, CEO of Lacoste, on X.
Medef president Patrick Martin also judged on X that this looting of businesses was "unacceptable." Montpellier Mayor Mickaël Delafosse feared on X that the perpetrators of this looting would "tragically be Marine Le Pen's best electoral agents. They tarnish the great dignity of those who are mobilizing," according to the elected official.
