Sadness, anger and good deals: that’s it, it’s over for the Odysseum Casino hypermarket in Montpellier

| September 30, 2024 | Business | No Comments

Sadness, anger and good deals: that’s it, it’s over for the Odysseum Casino hypermarket in Montpellier

Inaugurated on September 23, 2009, the Casino d’Odysseum hypermarket in Montpellier, like about twenty others throughout France, closed its doors for good this Monday, September 30, 2024.

Having come specially from Ganges by bus, Claudine admits: she could almost cry. A store so empty, of products, customers, staff, it “hurts the heart”. Well, Claudine didn't forget to do some good business either. In her cart, which is overflowing: ten pairs of windshield wipers, as many sun visors for cars, chains for tires… She would be wrong to deprive herself of it, it's on sale. And her son “likes Peugeots”, so. The return bus ride promises to be good.

An employee: “I'm coping quite well”

The employees are less talkative. They are not allowed to speak by their management… who nevertheless let them go. At noon, in the warehouses, it is time for a very special farewell party, fifteen years almost to the day after the store opened. “It's a shame that it has come to this, that we have to close,  laments an employee, who has been there for several years. Last day. But I'm taking it quite well, it's okay, we're bored on the other hand, I think the customers are more upset than we are." The employees will stay there for another four to six weeks, the time to really clean up.

A shopkeeper at the gallery : "We're at Odysseum after all"

In the hypermarket shopping mall, the atmosphere is different again. The four shopkeepers present do not know what they are going to get. They report directly to Klépierre, like the entire Odysseum shopping center. Anger is not far away. “Of course I am annoyed! Who wouldn't be? I am going to find myself with a closed curtain in front of my store, completely isolated. This is going to have consequences for my business, for my turnover. They should have anticipated this, we are at Odysseum after all! In addition, we pay an exorbitant rent."

Curetage, raw concrete and reworked access ?

Negotiations are underway to adjust their rents, quite logically. Especially since the situation is expected to last. "“There is no identified buyer” , emphasizes the national management of Casino. We already knew that. By November or December, the hypermarket completely emptied, a cleaning must then begin and the building returned to its initial state, in raw concrete. Nearly 20,000 m2 will then be available. But most certainly in a completely different configuration, in batches, and no longer with a convoluted access but with openings at the back. True or false, on the Odysseum side, some professionals are starting to dream of more modern brands: Grand Frais and Lidl are mentioned. Nothing is less certain.

Avenue de Toulouse: soon a Netto

On Avenue de Toulouse, the supermarket also closed its doors at the beginning of the week (as well as the car park). But in a completely different context since this store was taken over by the Les Mousquetaires group. But it is not an Intermarché that will be setting up (the brand is already well established in the area: at the Grand-M and on Avenue Clemenceau) but a Netto, the group's discount concept. It should be open by the end of the month.

Read also: “It was a showcase, a beautiful store”: when the Odysseum Casino in Montpellier is closed, employees are rather “relieved”

Read also: Closure of the Odysseum Casino in Montpellier: a “heartbreak” for some, “it's well done” for others

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