Struggled by the Covid and successive confinements, the San Marina shoe brand is closing the doors of its 160 stores on Saturday February 18. The employees, who will all lose their jobs, are having a hard time with this announcement.
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San Marina shoe stores lower the curtain on Saturday February 18. Its 660 employees, spread over 160 stores, will all be laid off, the unions have announced. The employees are torn between disappointment and concern for the future, as evidenced by Marie-Claude, saleswoman for six years in a shop in Houssen, near Colmar, in the Haut-Rhin. There are only a few hours left before saying goodbye to the customers.
A blow for employees
“We experience it as a bereavement, we shed our tears. There are two of us to close, it will be funny. We are a small, very tight-knit team, a small family. We were not going to work, we came home”, she explains. For her, the consequences of confinements and online commerce have hurt the shops.
But, Marie-Claude received a lot of support: “I received personal messages from customers who are saddened. Some of them became friends. They came to the store like at home”. At 57, this Colmarienne is worried about her professional future.
“We don’t even know if we’re going to get a redundancy bonus. In the team, we’re not little youngsters, we hope that we’ll find something. We’re a bit on the floor.”
Marie-Claude, saleswomanat France Bleu Alsace
For a few days, the employees had been fighting for their severance bonus. The unions demanded 6,000 euros per employee, when the management of the company offered 400 euros. The group’s shareholders have not presented an offer to the Marseille Commercial Court to save the brand. Weakened by the Covid pandemic, San Marina had been placed in receivership since last fall.
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