2023-06-17 17:23:15
The National Commission for Commercial Development (CNAC) has decided. There will be no Intermarché at the Portes de Chevreuse shopping center in Coignières (Yvelines). On the other side of the N10, the Lidl will be able to expand by 700 square meters. A project approved unanimously.
The difference is clear for the mayor (SE) of the city, Didier Fischer: “with Lidl, it was only an extension, not an establishment”. The Intermarché would have been one sign too many in a “shopping center already hosting very many stores”, according to the commission. With in particular a risk of saturating road traffic in a heavily frequented area.
“The project is real but not very concrete for the moment”, nuances Michel Biero, executive director of purchasing and marketing for Lidl France. The acquisition of a former car dealership will allow the retail area to reach 1,688 m². “One day we want to build a beautiful department store,” he adds. But you won’t be able to shop there in six months. According to the mayor of Coignières, the work should begin this year and be completed in early 2025.
For the mayor, this will “change the image of shoeboxes at the entrance to the city”
“The store needs to be expanded,” confirms Marie-Isabelle, 72, who regularly comes to Coignières to do her shopping. For some time now I have also found it to be untidy. “In mind, she keeps the image of the Lidl d’Élancourt, which she finds more spacious and modern.
“The project also had an environmental component which was appreciated by the CNAC”, boasts Didier Fischer. The roof of the new store will be equipped with photovoltaic panels and part of its walls will be vegetated. “It will help change the image of shoeboxes at the entrance to the city,” rejoices the mayor.
Eleven jobs should also be created on site, in addition to the 29 existing ones. Still, for the moment, the premises, which were supposed to accommodate the new Intermarché, are no longer allocated. A shortfall for the municipality and the owners, who plan to divide the space into lots for smaller businesses.
“Now everyone wants to go to Lidl”
Stokomani, Action, KomoMarché… impossible to miss the big names in discount and destocking along the N10. “We have a problem around prices. Many people are looking for less expensive signs, ”says the mayor of Coignières. Around the commercial zone, several municipalities have a higher poverty rate than the national average. This is the case of Trappes, where it reached 25% of the population in 2020 against 14.6% on average in France.
Proximity, diversity of products… the price is however not the only argument of the customers. Zahra, a former cashier currently unemployed, has her habits at Auchan, where she tracks down promotions. The renovation of the Lidl could nevertheless interest the thirty-year-old “who likes new things”.
As far as traders are concerned, the choice to set up shop does not depend on the local population. “15 years ago, we hid to go shopping at Lidl, now everyone wants to go there”, boasts the framework of the sign, with support for the express sale of multicolored sneakers in 2020 A location in Coignières is therefore not a miracle solution for low-cost stores. The proof: the closure in December 2022 of the KLO, a destocking brand established two years earlier in the commercial area.
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