A petition has been launched by journalist and literary critic François Busnel to request the opening of bookstores during the lockdown. Independent bookshops are not part of the so-called "?essentiels?" businesses, which causes a great deal of misunderstanding on the part of the sector.
Booksellers, who between literary prizes and Christmas shopping can make up to 40% of their annual turnover at this time of year, fear that customers will turn to e-commerce sites or supermarkets to make their purchases. All the more so as the Fnac-Darty brands will keep their stores open during the confinement, relying on the exemption granted to certain businesses to provide for the needs of employees teleworking.
An unfair competition that the journalist deplores: "?Fermer bookshops is to condemn a whole section of the cultural economy, no doubt to falter, and for some to disappear. Unfortunately, in a few weeks, a few months or a few years, it means condemning ourselves to seeing cities without bookshops, to finding white areas in France. And you're making a huge gift to a company that starts with Ama and ends with Zon, whose practices we know fiscales?" said François Busnel on Friday 30 October on France info.
Literary awards await reopening of bookstores
The day after the announcement of the reconfinement, the Académie Goncourt issued a press release stating that it was making the Goncourt prize conditional on the reopening of bookstores. This decision was followed by the Renaudot, the Prix Interallié, the Femina and the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française.
