Casa is closing 133 stores and cutting 600 jobs in France. In Fresnes, customers are already missing their "flagship brand."

Barely opened boxes lie on the floor, shelves are almost empty, and a few customers wandering around in droves. At the Casa de La Cerisaie store in Fresnes (Val-de-Marne), things are far from the usual bustle of shopping areas. "I came hoping to find a bargain, but everything is empty," laughs a customer. For three weeks, the furniture and decoration brand has been running a clearance sale to clear out as many products as possible. "50% off the entire store," reads red posters plastered in the window and around the shop. These bargains didn't arise because of a "closure before renovations" but rather because of a large-scale social plan, with the closure of 133 of the brand's 143 points of sale in France and the elimination of 600 jobs.

While the low prices delighted customers – "I spent 300 or 400 euros two weeks ago, the sales were crazy," says a regular at the La Cerisaie shopping area – they reflect a more somber reality for the company, which has been facing a string of economic setbacks for several months. In early March, the parent company of the international chain, Casa Belgique, established in eight European countries, filed for bankruptcy. Its French subsidiary immediately filed for receivership, declaring that it was suffering "the direct consequences of the bankruptcy of the Belgian subsidiary […] which provided the group's logistics as well as services