Abstract:
On Saturday, in Place Vendôme, an upscale business district in Paris, six masked men used a road barrier as a battering ram and slammed into the window of a Louis Vuitton boutique. Dozens of people dressed in black cheered them on. The robbers ultimately failed to break into the store, but narrowly escaped.
French authorities are taking steps to prevent stolen luxury goods from being resold through online platforms such as Vinted, Amazon and eBay.
A Louis Vuitton employee said: "We installed special windows that can withstand impacts, but the main thing is good luck."
He added: "This is sad. These people are not protesters, but people who come out specifically to smash and loot."
Amid the riots and looting that broke out across France over the weekend, other retailers were not so lucky. The unrest followed protests over inadequate school funding and high living costs.
In Paris, shops on major shopping streets such as the Champs Elysées have long been accustomed to installing protective equipment before protests or sports celebrations that could turn violent. Relevant departments also often require construction sites to properly keep construction materials.
However, this latest round of protests did not follow the usual coordination arrangements between unions and police, leading to what appeared to be serious lapses in preparedness. On Saturday, law enforcement officers were quickly overpowered by the swarming crowd.
An employee of a Dior store on Rue Royale in Paris said: "We can see that protesters are forcing the police back along the street."
Employees of this Dior store lowered the safety roller shutters in time around 4 p.m. to save the store from damage.
But the windows of a Ralph Lauren store across the street were smashed, and a Kenzo boutique was ransacked.
The Dior employee added: "I don't understand how the police were so unprepared. My children are all on social media and they seem to have known that the streets would be like battlefields this weekend."
Things calmed down in French cities on Monday night as curfews helped reduce unrest.
Videos circulating on social media over the weekend showed at least a dozen private security personnel forming a line of defense around Dior’s flagship store on Avenue Montaigne.
One of the security guards, Zaur Djabrailov, said on LinkedIn that most security guards voluntarily extended their working hours on Saturday despite warnings from protesters that they should go home for their own safety.
He said that they did this "not for glory or praise, but out of solidarity and mutual help."
A Burberry boutique in Paris was also targeted, while Louis Vuitton and Hermès stores in Marseille were looted.
A Graff jewelry store in Place Vendôme in Paris remained closed on Monday, and the store windows had been smashed.
Although a Dior boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré has reopened, its facade has been defaced with anti-police slogans and other graffiti.
French authorities are currently working to prevent looted goods from being resold online.
On Monday, French government ministers held a meeting with representatives of second-hand transactions and online platforms such as Vinted, Amazon, eBay, and Meta to discuss how to remove suspicious product information and identify relevant sellers.
Some luxury goods are also equipped with independent serial numbers or electronic chips, which can help compare stolen goods with merchants’ inventory records.
Vinted said on Monday: "Since last weekend, our teams have taken immediate action to identify and remove sales listings that may involve stolen merchandise and have increased monitoring of suspicious merchandise information."
The company added: "We are actively cooperating with law enforcement agencies and French authorities."
Other large retailers were also targeted.
Many stores of sportswear retailer JD Sports were looted, as were about 20 Sephora beauty stores across France and an Apple store in Lille.
In central Paris, a Tesla showroom was defaced with slogans accusing the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, of being a Nazi.
A nearby Société Générale branch was also forced to close. Its door was splashed with pink paint, and the words "Fuck the National Alliance" and "Fuck everything!" were written on boards covering the windows.
Among them, "National Rally" (RN) refers to the French far-right party National Rassemblement (Rassemblement National).
Commissions representing businesses on the Champs-Elysées, Rue Saint-Honoré, Place Vendôme and other upscale Paris business districts said they "denounced in the strongest possible terms" the attacks on stores, calling them "completely without any justification."
The damage caused by the riots is not limited to multinational corporations.
French Commerce Minister Serge Papin said that preliminary estimates show that at least 3,000 companies across the country have been affected by the riots. The French government has pledged to provide emergency financial and employment support to these businesses.
Insurance claims costs are expected to reach 1 billion to 1.2 billion euros, exceeding the 730 million euros insured losses caused by riots in 2023, according to Morningstar estimates.
Pierre Bosche, President of the Confederation of French Traders, said:
“Behind every smashed storefront window is a business owner, a few employees, a family, and often years of hard work. We refuse to let store operators become victims again of violence that has nothing to do with them.”
The owner of a small mobile phone repair and convenience store near Gare du Nord in Paris said he felt his life was threatened when about 100 young men wearing black clothes and hoods tried to break into his shop on Sunday night.
He estimated that the cost of repairing the store would be between 7,000 and 10,000 euros.
The shop owner held back tears and said: "Being alone through the glass window, facing the siege of so many people, 15 minutes is very long."
He added that he called the police for help, but no police came.
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