Coronavirus crisis boosted the second-hand market in France
Crisis? What crisis? When he does his accounts, Arnaud Guérin, the co-president of Cash Express, leader in second-hand buying and selling, surely has a smile on his face: whereas, fifteen days after the reopening of his 130 stores on May 11, he expected to see their frequentation return to the level before the coronavirus crisis, in June, sales finally jumped 5% compared to last year.
Jewelry, DVDs, snowshoes, smartphones, tools … Confined, the French have put away, sorted, emptied and decided to part with all those objects they no longer need. His counterpart of Cash Converters, Ronan Pensec, confirms: at his home, in June, sales took off by 10%. “Brand watches, drills or tennis rackets, there is everything. Since May 11, there has been a growing appetite from customers and I sell 5,000 to 6,000 products per month, ”adds Jean-Paul Oger, the owner of a Leclerc in Avermes (Allier), who opened a Leclerc Occasions in July 2019. .
The success of Vinted or Boncoin already proved it: the second-hand market is on the rise. Certainly, it has always existed thanks to flea markets and other garage sales in particular. “But it was the financial crisis of 2008 that served as the trigger,” recalls Pascale Hebel, sociologist at Crédoc, the research center for the study and observation of living conditions.
