Thomet says they will need to work hard to cling to the business they have gained. “Afterward, many of them take time discussing with their family and maybe then they order it on the Internet,” she says.īut then a new question: From which website will they buy? “The French retain their pleasure in going into a store, browsing, touching,” Thomet says. “Good stores are like showrooms in France.” But even so, many are still likely making purchases online.
Indeed, the moment the stores reopened last Monday, shoppers converged, seemingly desperate to leave their home. Those rules included requiring customers to wear facial masks and limiting the number of people allowed to enter the store at any one time. Thomet predicts that millions more French might have been converted into online shoppers during the country’s two-month lockdown.Įven so, FNAC rolled out strict COVID-19 rules when it reopened its physical stores on May 11, after the seven-week lockdown. Just three months ago, Grenier told a journalist the company had seen sharp growth in 2019 because of “ a generational revolution,” he said. The company began by selling CDs and DVDs in 1998, two years before Amazon launched in France, and before Amazon overtook it last year, it was France’s biggest online retailer. “We’ve seen sales accelerate week after week,” he told a French journalist. Sales rocketed about 40% in April for French online retailer Cdiscount, according to CEO Emmanuel Grenier, although he has declined to estimate how much was due to Amazon’s shutdown.
#Shut in french Ps4#
“We sold enormously all the things that Amazon usually sells, like PS4 players and books,” says Marie-Hélène Thomet, a sales representative in the city of Lyon for FNAC, the French retail chain whose 880 stores across France sell electronics, stereo equipment, and home appliances. The impact of Amazon’s shutdown seems to have been almost immediate. For those shut in at home in France, any trip to a pharmacy or food store during the lockdown required a government form stating the reason for leaving the house. The monthlong battle left 67 million French without the country’s biggest online retailer at the very moment that almost all physical stores were closed-until France’s severe seven-week lockdown ended on May 11. Rather than try to figure out which items were legal, they shut the company’s warehouses in France and countersued in late April, losing in court a second time. But Amazon execs calculated that the court order could easily cost them 1 billion euros a week in fines. Whether you spend a few minutes or a few hours, the French Broad Overlook provides an interesting glimpse into the rich history of this area.The company argued that it had gone beyond most others’ protective measures, issuing workers with facial masks and hand sanitizers and, as much as possible, imposing social distancing. The French Broad Overlook is also a great spot for bicyclists heading south towards Mount Pisgah to start their ride. You can pick up the trail on the nearby Parkway on-ramp. This large parking area is perfect if you are thinking about hiking the section of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail called the Shut-In Trail. It is located on the east side of the Blue Ridge Parkway (Milepost 393.8) and provides views of the French Broad River. An interpretive sign provides an overview of area’s history in the 1800’s. This overlook is on the south side of Asheville, close to the North Carolina Arboretum and NC 191. Its modern name came from early European settlers. Of the two broad (wide) rivers in this area, this one flowed into French territory in Tennessee. The Cherokee called it Agiqua or "Long Man”, an apt name as the entire watershed contains over 4,000 miles of rivers and streams. It is one of the few rivers that flows north. This ancient river is believed to be the third oldest in the world, around 250 million years old.
The French Broad Overlook's mildly risque-sounding name comes from the river that flows below it-the French Broad River.