French business leaders call for order after riots and looting: 'The Republic must protect its shopkeepers!'

After many French storefronts were ransacked by rioters on Saturday, Business owners are expressing their fury and disappointment on social media.

JEFF PACHOUD / AFP via Getty Images It's a dangerous time to own a brick-and-mortar storefront in France.

Violence erupted across the country on Saturday, as black-clad rioters ransacked stores.

Around 1,500 storefronts were targeted, one corporate heavyweight said.

Business owners in France are speaking out after cost-of-living protests turned into widespread rioting and looting across the country over the weekend.

Alexandre Bompard, the CEO of Carrefour, one of France's largest supermarket chains , said that about 1,500 businesses were targeted in the unrest.

Bompard and several other corporate heavyweights condemned the rioting and called on French authorities to restore order.

Photos and video from Paris and other French cities showed black-clad rioters smashing storefronts and leaving laden with armfuls of pilfered goods.

"We cannot allow violence to destroy what generations have put so much energy into building," Thierry Guibert, the CEO of Lacoste, said on X.

Here's what business owners are saying.

Thierry Guibert, CEO of Lacoste and Aigle.

Thierry Guibert tktk Jean Catuffe/Getty Images Guibert, who heads the luxury French clothing brand Lacoste and the outdoor clothing brand Aigle, issued a forceful statement on social media.

He said the looting is antithetical to the entrepreneurial spirit.

"When our Lacoste and Aigle stores are looted, like so many other businesses across France, it is not only shop windows that are being smashed," he said in French.