Thierry Cotillard, chairman of Les Mousquetaires, a French retail group that owns the Intermarché supermarket brand, called the looting “unacceptable” in a LinkedIn post.
“We cannot trivialize these scenes,” he said. “We cannot accept that violence becomes a response, that destruction becomes a mode of expression and that those who work honestly become the collateral victims of the anger of others.”
Cotillard said at least two of his franchises in Paris and Rennes were “ransacked by thugs” during the riots on Saturday. He said his thoughts were with “all the shopkeepers who are paying the price.”
“To our members, to our teams who are victims of this damage: you are not alone,” he said. “We are at your side.”