At first glance, the opening of down town stores deserves to be considered

Apparently, the opening of Angers retail shops on the two Sundays before Christmas was favourable to store owners, wooden huts operators, customers and the city which offered an enlivened atmosphere to visitors from outside. If  that days was, for a lot of people, only an opportunity to walk throughout the hustel and bustle of down town where street shows took place, numerous of them came in the stores, from where some of them left, with parcels or at least ideas of gifts for their relatives.

The most attended stores were surely the wooden huts, especially those selling food and beverages. People were standing in line for something to eat or to drink. Most of the shops were opened and made some sales. And many of those selling pastries had set up terraces on the pavement. Within a few weeks, figures of the turnover will say if the opening help to improve the local economic situation private decision-makers, and among them retail store owners, said it was worrying. Maybe it will not be the case, but behaviour of consumers is something difficult to change quickly and deeply. That needs time. The initiative is a first step and the project of a new commercial centre, where the post office is located, would surely create a need for openings on wider schedules.


On the other hand, it is sure the appeal launched by the Nouveau parti anticapitaliste (Npa) to a boycott of the Sunday openings was a failure. Seen from the Chaperonnière street, the Ralliement square and the Lenepveu street, some of the busiest places of the city, were overcrowded as if people were attracted by people. But this a fundamental law of economy, the offer creates its demands. May that not be forgotten in the future.