Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, filed an online petition called “Knowle Sans Amazon” (“Amazon Free Christmas”). Addressing Santa Claus, he signs “#Christmaswithout Amazon”, described as a tax-dodging ginch that destroys France’s small businesses, jobs and the environment.
However, Virtual Call for Weapons quickly fell victim to a hackline hack that overloaded the website with fake signatures sent from more than 200 different servers, including hundreds named by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, with the comment “Sorry, sorry. “
The controversy over the control of small businesses by French politicians reopened a widespread controversy on Black Friday, which did not even happen in Europe a few years ago, when it was started primarily by Amazon, which began to promote big sales. With locks in the United States.
While American Thanksgiving is only the second Thursday in Europe, Black Friday has prospered. In Britain, Spain and other countries, Amazon and other major retailers have started offering Black Friday discounts online earlier this month.
France has been slower than other European countries to join the trend, and politicians have discouraged shoppers from participating, warning of “consumption frenzy”, encouraging people to buy essential products. The fact that Amazon is not a French company did not help either.
Yet Black Friday has been a crucial tool for retailers selling up. Last year, French retailers reported revenue of around 6 billion euros around Black Friday.
These sales are more crucial than this year as retailers suffered unprecedented losses from lockdowns linked to the coronavirus epidemic. Although stores were reopened from June to September, that was not enough to fully compensate for France’s first lockdown: year-to-date sales are still, below their 2019 level, averaging 10 percent, according to an analysis by German bank Allianz.
