Open markets not for all professionals

All the usual incumbent traders can now be welcomed on the open-air markets in France, whether food or non-food.

It is, however, for everyone, to scrupulously respect the safety and health instructions necessary to fight against the COVID-19 epidemic: prohibition for customers to touch the products, wearing of a mandatory mask for traders throughout market performance, respect for the safety distances marked on the ground, positioning of elements delimiting the customer queues, promoting contactless payment and regular disinfection of payment terminals, etc.

At the heart of Parisian life, the markets are places of conviviality which contribute to the economic dynamism of the district.
Barely a third of the 10,500 open-air markets which are held each week have been able to reopen by derogation, but under strict sanitary conditions.

Last week, some of the customers were able to return to their markets. Closed since March 23, they were able to reopen by prefectural decision after consulting the mayor. Of the 10,500 markets listed in France, at least 3,700 can now be held, according to the French Market Federation.

In the aftermath of the confinement, the images of the crowd on the Aligre market in the 12th arrondissement of Paris had caused a stir on social networks and irritated the authorities, in particular the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement.

On the authorized food markets, responding “to a proven and signaled need of supply of the population”, the conditions which allow “the sanitary security of the traders and the customers” are strict: filtering at the entry, obligation for the traders of serve customers, markings on the ground and use of privileged contactless payment. See one-way traffic and hydroalcoholic gel on entry and exit. “We have implemented other measures, such as reserving the first hour of the morning for frail people or caregivers, and launched a solidarity delivery system at home,” explains Romain Alaman, founder of the company Biltoki, which operates five covered markets in the Southwest, three of which are open.

At the Federation of French markets, we hope to see other markets reopen, especially in Ile-de-France. “We see that, in certain departments, the prefects had a very restrictive, and even abnormal, appreciation of the texts,” laments Monique Rubin, president of the Federation of the markets of France.

In Toulouse, open-air markets, whether food or non-food, they must respect barrier gestures, manage the flow of customers in front of their stall, and make every technical effort to keep customers away from the food and items sold. , to avoid touching or contaminating them by coughing or sneezing.

In Pibrac every Wednesday morning, from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the Esplanade Sainte Germaine, more than thirty traders with varied skills await you: fruits and vegetables (early vegetables, producer, organic), cured meats, poultry, butchers, rotisserie , ready meals, fishmonger, cheeses, clothes, seedlings producers, and every Saturday morning, from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm in the parking lot of the TMP, local producers offer you stalls of fresh products.

The National Federation of Markets in France, the Federation of Saveurs Commerce, the Federation of Cheese Makers in France and the Organization of Fishmongers in France have prepared a methodological guide for the use of mayors and merchants with a view to reopening all markets and halls in France on May 11.

Now the rule is open markets. All markets, food, manufactured and mixed, are in principle authorized to open in compliance with the rules set out in Article 1 and Annex 1 of Decree 2020-548 of May 12, 2020.

Specifically, all professionals, whether food or non-food, must be welcomed to the markets. Discrimination linked, for example, to the type of product, of a “local” character, would again be illegal as provided for in ordinary law and included in circular 77-705 of the Ministry of the Interior.

However, to date, following the decisions of certain mayors and prefects, many of our professionals, following the application of totally random criteria, are excluded from the markets in which they usually exercise!

The only alternative for our colleagues is to file for bankruptcy so as to no longer generate additional charges and debts, as well as to lay off on June 1, all their employees who will no longer be able to access partial unemployment.

We are arrested everywhere on the territory by angry professionals who organize, demonstrate, settle down without authorization, plan the blocking of supermarkets, municipal elections or even prefectures …

These justified movements of anger, more and more numerous without any control harden and intensify, catalyzing progressively all the dissatisfactions. Only the immediate resumption of work on their sites and in all cities can bring back a little serenity.

It is no longer an economic safeguard of their businesses, it is a question of survival. Thus, by refusing them access to the markets, hundreds of families will find themselves in irreversible precariousness!

We ask for immediate intervention from the public authorities, announced the National Federation of Markets of France, in a press release on May 15, 2020.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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