'It's hard for us': Paris small businesses bear the brunt of protest violence

Small business owners are paying the highest price for last weekend's protest violence and looting in the French capital, Paris. Shops near Place de la Republique, at the epicentre of the looting and rioting that swept this part of the city on Saturday, now stand like ruins.

Jagged shards of glass frame the hole kicked through the window of Hassan Rashdul's mobile phone shop. Watching a CCTV livestream on his phone, he says: 'I was crying.'

His glass countertop is shattered and the floor is carpeted with broken glass. The display cases that were full of new and reconditioned mobile phones, iPads and computers are empty. The walls where headphones, cables, phone cases and other accessories hung have been stripped bare.

'It's really terrible,' says the 32-year-old Rashdul. 'It was very, very hard for us... It's already hard for small business owners like us. We're not operating to keep the business going, but just to survive, really.'

By Rashdul's account, he has lost at least 70,000 euros (about $78,600) worth of stock. His insurance will not cover it, because loss from theft was not included in his policy.

The French government has announced it will stand by those affected. According to Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, the government will cover the employee salaries of about 3,000 businesses across France affected by the rioting. A 'dedicated support fund' has also been announced to help businesses restock.

Lecornu has ordered more than 200 investigators to work on catching the perpetrators of the riots and looting. But the looters are moving quickly — some businesses say they found their stock being sold online within hours of being looted.

Digital minister Anne Le Henanff said on X: 'Stolen items from this weekend are being offered for sale on certain platforms. We expect these platforms to remove the listings in question without delay.'

She held a meeting with representatives of six platforms in the presence of Interior and Justice Ministry officials. According to the French commerce ministry, representatives of Vinted, Amazon, eBay, Leboncoin, Meta and TikTok, as well as French online retail association Fevad, were invited. Le Henanff added that the platforms will also be required to cooperate closely with state authorities so that those reselling stolen goods can be prosecuted.

Around Rashdul's shop, the mini-markets, opticians, phone stores and cafes bear testimony to last weekend's violence. Some are boarded up. Others, where there is nothing left to steal, have been left open and exposed to the damp October weather by their owners.

Yet amid his suffering, Rashdul spots a glimmer of hope. 'There's another side to it,' he says, 'a positive — local customers, people from the neighbourhood.' These people have set up appeals on social media to secure help for shopkeepers, he says. 'They really make you want to try again,' he says. 'People are helping us to rebuild our shop, to get back to work and serve this neighbourhood once again.'

But it will not be easy. It took Rashdul, who immigrated to France from Bangladesh, 10 years to build his business. He now calls himself a proud French citizen — respectful of the right to protest, but also worried about the impact of violence on businesses like his and on France as a whole. 'Even though I want to rebuild, next Saturday they've announced another protest,' he says. 'I know we're in a democracy and there's a right to protest, but if that ends up in more looting, then that's hard on France and damaging for its international reputation.'