Exclusive Interview with the Owner of a Robbed French Game Store: "We Plan to File a Joint Lawsuit Against the Relevant Authorities"

On October 17–18, protests in various parts of France escalated into large-scale rioting, looting, and vandalism, with several brick-and-mortar video game and collectibles stores along Boulevard Voltaire in Paris’s 11th arrondissement being ransacked. Game Teahouse has exclusively learned that the affected businesses have formed a coalition and are preparing to sue the French government.

On October 25, the owner of All Geeks, a toy collectibles store in Paris, told Game Teahouse, “We’ve formed a coalition of businesses and are preparing to sue the French government.”According to him, on the day of the incident, approximately 500 rioters were active from 4:00 p.m. until midnight. “They ransacked every store on this street because the police were nowhere to be found.”

According to statistics from *Le Parisien* on October 22, 451 stores in Paris alone were vandalized over the past two days. Data from the French Ministry of the Interior shows that approximately 550,000 people across France participated in this round of protests, 2,397 were arrested by police, and nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers were injured.Several French media outlets noted in their reports that the complete absence of police in the affected areas was the direct cause of the heavy losses suffered by businesses.

All Geeks Robbed

The owner of All Geeks recalled that at the time of the incident, he was attending the Made in Asia trade show in Belgium. “At 5:50 p.m., I received a video showing my store on the BFM news channel, with the storefront being smashed,” he said.He estimates the damage to the store at over 100,000 euros, and it will take at least two months to resume business. Due to “very poor insurance coverage,” the store has launched a fundraising campaign on the crowdfunding platform Leetchi and is attracting global orders through its official website by offering a 20% discount code to help the business recover.

Avenue Voltaire is a well-known hub for game, card, and anime collectibles stores in Paris. According to *Le Parisien*, stores such as Manga Story, Hobby One, and Sat Elite were “completely ransacked” on the evening of the 17th.A on-the-scene report by *Le Figaro* quoted a shop owner at Manga Story as saying, “They stole everything. We saw girls tearing open boxes to take the games and running off laughing; others were taking selfies while stepping on broken glass.”

Valentin, the owner of Joe La Carte, a store that sells Pokémon cards, pointed out in an interview with France’s BFMTV that card shops were “specifically targeted”: “The windows of other stores on this street are all intact; only shops like ours were ransacked… Our cards have already started appearing on the secondhand market.”

One of the most widely recognized scenes from this round of riots took place in Nice, where Pierre, the manager of a Micromania video game store, stood alone in front of the store’s smashed door to block the crowd; the poster of Goku from *Dragon Ball FighterZ* beside him made this photo go viral on social media around the world.

Images of social groups provided by All Geeks

At present, All Geeks has not disclosed a specific litigation timeline for the coalition. A screenshot of a social media group provided by the company shows that the group, named “Coalition of Businesses Vandalized at Republic Square,” has a total of 60 members.According to the owner of All Geeks, the coalition includes anime and gaming stores along Voltaire Avenue, such as All Geeks, Manga Story, Hobby One, and Sat Elite.