Six masked figures wielded a road barrier as a battering ram against the windows of the Louis Vuitton boutique on Paris’s upscale Place Vendome on Saturday, cheered on by dozens of black-clad figures.
The looters never made it inside, but it was close. “We have specialist windows that held, but mostly we were lucky,” said an employee of the luxury brand. “It’s sad. These were not protesters but people who had only come out to break things and steal.”
Other retailers were less fortunate during a weekend of rioting and looting across France, which followed protests about underfunded schools and the cost of living.
In Paris, stores along main arteries such as the Champs-Elysees are used to barricading their storefronts ahead of protests or sports celebrations that may turn violent, while authorities often ask construction sites to secure materials.
However, preparations for the most recent protests appear to have broken down because they did not follow the usual choreography between unions and police. Law enforcement was quickly overrun on Saturday.
“We could see the police getting backed down the street by the mob,” said a Dior employee, whose shop on Paris’s Rue Royale was spared after employees brought down security shutters at about 4pm. Across the road, the windows of a Ralph Lauren store were smashed and a Kenzo boutique was looted.
“I don’t understand how the police were so unprepared. My kids have social media and they seemed to know it was going to be war out there this weekend,” the Dior employee added.
French cities were calmer on Monday night as curfews helped to reduce disorder.
Footage on social media over the weekend showed at least a dozen private security officers creating a perimeter around Dior’s Avenue Montaigne flagship. One of the guards, Zaur Djabrailov, said on LinkedIn that most of them had volunteered to stay late on Saturday “not for glory, not for congratulations, but out of solidarity” even after protesters warned them to go home for their own safety.
A Burberry boutique was among the other targets in Paris, while Louis Vuitton and Hermes stores in Marseille were looted. An outlet of jeweller Graff on Paris’ Place Vendome was closed on Monday, its windows smashed, while a Dior boutique on Rue Saint-Honoré was trading but its facade disfigured by anti-police slogans and other graffiti.
Authorities are now working to stop looted goods being resold online. Ministers met on Monday with resale platforms including Vinted, Amazon, eBay, Meta and TikTok to discuss removing suspicious listings and identifying sellers. Some luxury goods also carry either unique serial numbers or chips that could help match stolen items to inventories.
“Since this weekend, our teams have acted immediately to identify and remove listings that may be related to stolen goods, and we have strengthened our monitoring of suspicious listings,” Vinted said on Monday. “We are actively collaborating with law enforcement and French authorities.”
Other big retailers were targeted. Branches of sportswear group JD Sports were ransacked, as were about 20 Sephora beauty stores across the country and an Apple store in Lille. In central Paris, a Tesla showroom was defaced with slogans accusing chief Elon Musk of being a Nazi. A nearby Societe Generale bank branch was closed, its door splattered with pink paint and the words “Screw the RN” — a reference to the far-right Rassemblement National party — and “Screw it all!” emblazoned on boarded-up windows.
Committees representing businesses on the Champs-Elysees, Saint-Honore, Vendome and other upscale areas of Paris said they “condemned in the strongest possible terms” the attacks on stores, calling them “entirely unjustifiable”.
“The freedom to demonstrate is a fundamental right, an honour of our Republic and a tradition of our democracy . . . Paris must not give in to the rioters. We refuse to let fear take hold in our streets. Those who live and work here will not accept it,” the associations said in a joint statement on Monday.
The damage extended beyond multinationals. Preliminary estimates indicate that at least 3,000 businesses had been affected by the riots nationally, said commerce minister Serge Papin, as the government promised emergency financial and employment support for those enterprises. Insurance costs are expected to reach between €1 billion (US$1.12 billion; S$1.44 billion) and €1.2 billion, according to Morningstar, above the €730 million in insured losses caused by riots in 2023.
“Behind every smashed storefront, there is an entrepreneur, employees, families and often years of work. We refuse to allow shopkeepers to once again become victims of violence that doesn’t concern them,” said Pierre Bosche, president of the Confederation of French Traders.
The owner of a small phone repair and convenience store near Gare du Nord said he had feared for his life when about a hundred young people, dressed in black and wearing hoods, tried to break in on Sunday night. He estimated repairs would cost between €7,000 and €10,000.
“Fifteen minutes under siege all alone behind a glass window facing that many individuals is a very long time,” he said, holding back tears, adding that he had called the police but no one came.
Adrienne Klasa © 2026 The Financial Times.
This article originally appeared in The Financial Times.