After a month of forced closure due to Covid-19, Nicétoile is preparing for a decisive sprint until Christmas

On the bridge since 6 am Thursday, this manager of a large brand of the Nicétoile shopping center no longer touches the ground. Overwhelmed by orders, confinement requires, “click and collect” and the pallets of deliveries that accumulate in anticipation of the reopening on Saturday, while half of the staff is still on short-time work.

In front of the “bubble elevators” in the central hall, which are reminiscent of those on a cruise ship, the Christmas lights are already twinkling, as if nothing had happened. But the desperately empty aisles are a reminder of the harsh reality of “confinement”: less than 6,000 people per day currently enter the shopping center on Avenue Jean-Médecin in Nice. “Eight times less than in normal times” calculated the director, Patrick Nolier.

Rents offered to traders

At the helm of this vessel of 100 shops and restaurants, he has just weathered two storms in less than a year. “We reduced the opening hours of the center and offered during the first confinement three months of rent to independent traders, one to two months to large brands, to help them pass the course. We have every interest in our traders being in good health ”.

The horizon should clear up on Saturday. “We are ready, we are in control of the processes, which we had experienced in the spring during the first deconfinement”. Stickers indicate the directions of movement, hydroalcoholic gel is available and sensors, installed well before the arrival of the Covid-19, make it possible to know in real time the number of people present in the shopping arcade. “To respect the rule of 8 m2 per customer, we have a gauge set at 3,500: when we reach 90% of this capacity, we receive an alert and the security guards stop the entrances”.

“I’m a little worried”

But will there be people for this first opening day for a month of businesses deemed “non-essential”? “I’m a little nervous,” says Michèle Bensadoun, who runs a shoe store in the basement. “The first customers will set the trend. I’m afraid they’ll come but wait for December 4th [date choisie pour un « black friday » cette année] to buy “. It would be a big blow for this shopkeeper: “We have already missed November, which is our best month, we have 1,300 pairs of unsold shoes and little cash”

On the four levels of Nicétoile, the employees are busy behind the iron curtains. Workers are even finishing some shops: “No shop has disappeared because of the confinement, we are even going to open new ones on Saturday”. Two restaurants and an official store at the Stade Niçois Rugby will wipe the plasters from Saturday.