Locked-down France inches toward 'Black Friday' postponement

PARIS (AP) — France's government was working Friday to get supermarket chains and e-commerce platforms to agree to a week-long postponement of “Black Friday” promotions, responding to concerns that shops shuttered by the nation's coronavirus lockdown are hemorrhaging business and could be hurt further if they miss out on the consumer splurge.

With the lockdown starting to bring France's latest virus surge back under control, the government is facing pressure to allow businesses closed as “non-essential” to reopen. But it is also mindful of the risk of infections speeding up again if restrictions are lifted too soon, too quickly. The approach of “Black Friday," on Nov. 27 in France, has brought the dilemma to a head.

Postponing "Black Friday” until real-world stores have reopened would allow them to also profit from consumer spending on cut-price goods ahead of Christmas.

France’s economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, said he was hopeful that a deal would be struck in talks Friday afternoon with e-commerce sites, supermarket operators and others involved to push back “Black Friday” by a week to Dec. 4. Real-world stores are hoping they'll have emerged from lockdown by then.

Le Maire’s ministry said supermarket operators and e-commerce sites are looking “favorably” at a possible postponement, “in a spirit of responsibility."

The director of Amazon France, Frederic Duval, told France Info radio on Friday before the meeting that the e-commerce distributor is ready to sign up to a delay. Its “Black Friday” promotions will be pushed back to Dec. 4, he said. The delay applies only to Amazon France, he added. In several other countries Amazon was launching a week of deals already on Friday.

The focus on “Black Friday” is part of what has become a wider debate in France about the lopsided...