“I felt compelled to come over and say a final goodbye to them.” A loyal customer of the Roubais brand, Nina wanted to be present in the Leers store, near Lille, a few hours before the final closure. “I’ve been wearing Camaieu since I was 18, today I’m 36… I didn’t expect it and I think the employees, even less.”
Loyal customers who came to say their goodbyes
A little further in the line, Danielle, a septuagenarian, has trouble hiding her emotion. “I am very sad to see this brand, which has accompanied me for many years, leave. There was choice, quality and at a low price. I am also thinking of the employees who will have to find a job and that saddens me. .”
Support that particularly affects the sellers of the shop, still in shock. “Customers came with words of support, chocolates, gifts, flowers... really, it warms the heart”says one of them.
– Gwendal Lavina
All stocks left in three days
Since the announcement of the judicial liquidation of the sign pronounced this Wednesday by the commercial court of Lille, the employees of the store have seen hundreds of customers pass. And it shows: in the shop, the shelves and boxes are empty. “When I see the store like that, it turns my heart. It’s total nothingness. In seven years I’ve never seen my store like this.”
Even today, the flow of customers at checkouts has been uninterrupted, you had to wait up to 10 minutes to pass. The only consolation for the 500 employees in the region: the turnover achieved over the last three days should make it possible to negotiate a better social plan in their favor.
– Gwendal Lavina
Employees from the head office in Roubaix also came to support the team in the store. “It was important to be there“, explains Malika. “Everything happened in such a rush… _We didn’t expect it to happen so quickly._. The week we spent was a crazy week, we went through all the emotions“, regrets Nicolas, also an employee at the head office. “And today, we must close this chapter“.
The difficult question of the after
A few minutes before lowering the curtain for the last time, the employees of the shop embrace each other, some burst into tears. “And now ?“For Fréderick, who has spent her entire career as a saleswoman at Camaieu, it will take some time before she can start looking for work again. “You know, when you spend 29 years in a box, you learned everything there, you trust… But there _I say to myself, I’m about to turn 50 and I’m no longer old enough, there will be younger people._.. It’s going to take me some time to get that confidence back.”
– Gwendal Lavina
The Roubaisian brand would have celebrated its fortieth anniversary in 2024.