All Against Online Retailer – Boycott of Amazon in France – News

Most shops in France are closed due to the crown lock, everything is still only available online. Businessmen and politicians are therefore demanding a “Christmas without Amazon” and demanding extra taxes for the “crisis profiteer”.

Not a single Amazon gift should be placed under the Christmas tree, 120 politicians, traders, environmental activists and writers asked in an online petition. Another demands that the sales of the digital company and the notorious tax evader be charged a tax as well.

The American online mail order giant is becoming the nation’s favorite enemy in France. “Amazon makes a profit while many small businesses are in trouble,” says economist Henri Sterdyniak, justifying the request for an additional tax.

The block as a good deal

Since October 30, France has been blocked for the second time to fight the virus. All shops that do not offer basic necessities have been closed. And this time, supermarkets also have to close their shelves with toys, clothes or books for competition reasons.

This makes e-business interesting and the market leader Amazon was able to increase sales by 40 to 50% in November alone. A nuisance for countless shopkeepers who risk bankruptcy despite billions in financial injections from the government. Frédéric Duval, head of Amazon France, points out that the US company employs 9,300 people in France. “An unskilled, often poorly paid Amazon job destroys two higher-paying jobs in smaller companies,” says Sterdyniak.

Small business market

But Amazon is also a market for around 11,000 French small and micro businesses. “Without Amazon, we wouldn’t even exist,” Laure Dufour points out. Together with her husband and designer, she runs the “Ticky Tacky” stationery boutique. They sell their currently creative Christmas cards, stickers and greeting packs, designed with great attention to detail, for young and old on the online shipping market.

This too finds no mercy in the eyes of the economist: “Amazon is like an octopus. The company makes its platform available to retailers, but has a tendency to gradually replace its goods with its own products. “The time has come for Sterdyniak to end the growing monopoly. With a global digital tax, the giants of sectors such as Google, Facebook, Apple or Amazon should be called to pay, however, there is still no international consensus on this and it should be a topic again in the virtual G20 meeting tomorrow Saturday.

Christmas sales in danger

What further fuels the anti-Amazon atmosphere in France is the upcoming “Black Friday” business day on November 27th. Infection rates and hospital admissions are slowly decreasing, but the government believes rapid isolation is reckless. The shops risk being closed until December. Faced with this headwind, however, Amazon shows its understanding: the US company is ready to postpone the battle over discounts for a week.