Sephora shuts all French stores after riots hit shops and staff

Sephora closed its entire store network in France from 5pm on Saturday 17 October and kept its city centre stores shut the following day, after riots left several outlets ransacked and retail staff facing violence. Catherine Spindler, President of Europe and Middle East at the LVMH-owned retailer, announced the closures on LinkedIn and set out the reasoning in blunt terms.

"Yesterday, several of our stores in France were ransacked," Spindler wrote. "Even more seriously, women and men in our teams have been confronted with situations of violence, fear and great tension."

Why did Sephora pull the shutters?

The chain prioritised staff safety over trading hours. "Because no business consideration will ever weigh more than the safety of our teams and customers," Spindler said, adding that employees "should never have to fear for their safety when they go to work."

Her post framed the closures as a duty of care rather than a commercial judgement. Behind each storefront, she wrote, "there are faces, stories, women and men who practice their profession with passion, to welcome, advise, share."

The violence broke out during demonstrations in France over education services, which escalated into rioting, looting and vandalism in Paris and other cities over the weekend.

What does this mean for the retailer?

For Sephora, the decision puts an entire national footprint offline at once — city centre locations in particular, which typically carry the heaviest weekend footfall. The retailer has not yet quantified lost trading days.

Cosmetics Business has contacted Sephora for comment and for an update on the status of stores on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 October. As of publication, no confirmation had been issued on reopening timelines.

For beauty teams on the ground, the episode is a reminder of how quickly duty-of-care obligations translate into operational decisions: full-network closures, staff sent home, and security assessments that outrank weekend sales targets.

The broader signal for the trade is straightforward. When civil unrest reaches retail streets, chains with dense city centre networks carry concentrated exposure — and LVMH's beauty division just demonstrated the playbook: close first, count the cost later.