All Saints Day : family outings... at the superstore

Are the Angevins schizophrenic or is there a split between what their represen-tatives at city council or at the board of Angers Loire Métropole think about the opening of stores on Sundays and no working days and what they really think them-selves? If there is uncertainty about which is the relevant question, there is no doubt about their common answer which is, clearly : yes. On November 1st All Saints Day, when French pay tribute to their relatives who passed away, the supermarket of Les Banchais district, was overcrowded.

The parking lots were full of cars and some of them were even parked on the greens because of the lack of available spots. And inside the supermarket prevailed a hectic atmosphere. Given that the Super U had to close at 12.30 pm, the access to stocks was closed and an employee, rather tall, was explaining to the customers that he could not let people come in because that would make impossible for the store to close at the scheduled time. "There is no more bread", explained that one to a woman visibly angry by the situation while the sixteen checkout assistants had, each of them, to deal with the purchases of customers standing in line on 15 meters in the middle of the rows, many of them with trolleys full of items...


It was as if the store planned to close for a month even if, in fact, it was just closed for the afternoon and once again opened on the following day! It 's sure that the raining weather which prevailed over the city that day wasn't very propicious to open air leisures. But it is clear that going to stores in family is clearly a leisure, alas or not, for many inhabitants. Those one have got the products they needed. The employees have worked and been paid. The turnover of the store will allow public authorities to get revenues through taxes. The debate about the opening of stores on no working days is far from to be dead.