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PARIS -- It is not strictly business as usual. Many European beauty retailers are reporting they have seen a major slowdown since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
In the region, U.K. doors seemed the most affected.
London-based department-store retailer Selfridges PLC said last week that its volume had declined by about $1.46 million in the two weeks following the events, even though tourists represent only about 20 percent of its sales at its three locations.
Harvey Nichols, which relies on tourists for some 15 percent of sales, said business has recovered in the period. However, the department-store retailer, which has doors in London and Leeds, said sales fell substantially on the day after the attacks and were down 5 percent that week.
Neither Selfridges nor Harvey Nichols broke out the impact on their beauty departments.
In France, retailers also reported a drop in sales. At the Galeries Lafayette's Boulevard Haussmann flagship store, a spokeswoman said sales in the perfumery and fashion accessories departments were slightly affected, without breaking out figures.
"On the day of the attacks, we noted an immediate impact, but clients came back very quickly," she explained.
Likewise, France's largest beauty chain Parfumeries Marionnaud is now back on track. "In the two to three days following, we saw a small dip in sales in the Paris stores and those in the Paris area," said Philippe Charoing, general manager at the firm. "But things have since gone back to normal."
To soothe possible shareholder and consumer fears, Marionnaud took out a page-long advertisement in some of France's financial dailies Thursday showing the perfumery business's constant growth over the past 10 years and quoting Marionnaud president Marcel Frydman saying: "Perfumery is and will remain a growing sector."
The ad continued: "We knew difficult times at the beginning of the Nineties, with the Gulf War and economic crises, which proved our sector does not suffer from discontented consumers; on the contrary, we...