Shein, the fast-fashion e-tailer founded in Nanjing, China, and now headquartered in Singapore, will be opening physical stores as of November, starting in France. To this end, according to the BBC, it has secured a deal with Société des Grands Magasins (SGM), a French family-owned company founded in 2018 that specializes in commercial real estate.
As detailed by Le Monde and AFP, Shein’s plan is to open its first store inside one of SGM’s properties – the BHV Marais, a venerable department store cattycorner from city hall in Paris. Next will come stores inside five other SGM properties – this time department stores under the Galeries Lafayette banner, in Dijon, Reims, Grenoble, Angers and Limoges. And here Shein has run into trouble, as Bloomberg reports.
There are in fact at least two kinds of Galeries Lafayette stores – those operated as franchises by SGM and those owned and operated by the old management, Galeries Lafayette Group. This split was announced in August 2021 and occurred in May 2022.
The old group says that its “values” differ from Shein’s and that the store openings would violate the terms of SGM’s contract. SGM and Shein, for their part, have said in a statement that they “aim to attract a younger, more connected clientele, while preserving the historic DNA of department stores.”
According to the BBC, the Swiss advocacy group Public Eye found in a 2024 investigation that Shein factory employees worked 75 hours per week. This occurred despite Shein’s promises to improve conditions.
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