Paris Salon – a record-breaker!

The sixteenth edition of the Emmaus Salon, at Porte de Versailles in Paris was another big success this year. With 28,000 visitors and total proceeds reaching 630,000 Euros, it was a record-breaking year for the gigantic jumble sale that raises funds for international solidarity.

Up to 2,000 companions, staff and volunteers from the movement came to the salon from all over France and neighbouring countries. The sale attracted a wide variety of customers – from families on a tight budget who mainly come to equip themselves with low-priced household goods (electrical goods, multimedia and furniture for example) to vintage enthusiasts looking for a good bargain, to more specialist collectors. Altogether the salon attracted a real community of responsible shoppers and Emmaus leaders. The Emmaus salon isn’t just about bargain hunting though – it’s also a way of supporting a worldwide movement that’s fighting against social exclusion and campaigning for social justice, raising funds for humanitarian programmes in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas and doing your bit for sustainable development by actively helping to prevent waste. In fact a great many projects around the world are to be financed this year using the proceeds of the salon.

At this year’s event, the salon filled an expansive area – more than 22,000 m² – in hall 1 at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre. As soon as the doors were opened, visitors poured in and rushed down the aisles looking for rare items and good deals.

The Emmaus salon also owes its success to the lively atmosphere and live music and events. The “Do it Yourself” workshops were particularly popular as was the customisation stand run by 28 well-known street artists.

In a largely profit-orientated society dominated by individualism, competition and unbridled consumerism, the Emmaus movement has shown again this year that an economic alternative is possible, with an economic model that’s based on solidarity and the restoration and reuse of donated goods.
A pioneer in sustainable development for over 60 years, Emmaus fights against all forms of exclusion and has come up with a fairer model of society that’s based on solidarity, all the while providing adapted and innovative solutions to social exclusion and poverty. Emmaus gives very vulnerable or long-term unemployed people a second chance, whilst giving donated goods a new lease of life.