Printemps, which is owned by Qatari investors, is one of the pre-eminent French department stores alongside Galeries Lafayette, and a big draw for tourists in Paris, though the coronavirus pandemic has all but frozen international travel.
“It’s important that we are able to reopen quickly and re-launch our activity, even if we know that we will not have the same revenues as last year,” said Pierre Pelarrey, general director of Printemps’ flagship store on Boulevard Haussmann.
Pelarrey did decline to give information regarding the revenue shortfall or whether the chain would obtain a state-guaranteed loan to help its finances through the pandemic, saying only “it is being studied” when asked about government aid. The number of customers is expected to be down to about eight thousand shoppers per day, Pelarrey said, which equates to about a quarter of normal traffic.
