The hotel and restaurant industry is among the hardest hit from the strikes, with business down 40 to 50 percent since the movement began on Dec. 4, according to Synhorcat, the industry’s trade association. In Strasbourg, home to France’s biggest Christmas market, 70 percent of hotel bookings have been canceled because of reduced nationwide train schedules, the group said.

Some of Mr. Bouthier’s employees can’t make it in easily, so he pays for them to take Uber. He invested €5,000 in Christmas decorations, but he won’t be making that money back, he said. “The only solution is to stop the strikes,” he said. “The government must put out the fire.”

Around 80 percent of small and midsize businesses are reporting financial losses from the strike, with half saying they will not be able to make up for lost sales, according to the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Those affected have seen sales slump around 30 percent, and by up to 60 percent or more in Paris, Strasbourg and Marseilles.

At Psyché, an upscale jewelry boutique in the Marais district of central Paris, the owner, Chantal Clauriel, typically makes €1,500 to €3,000 in sales a day at this time of year. But as commuters remained caught up in the strikes, she earned only €68 all of last week, she said.

Her husband, who runs the Barbier de Monge hair and beard styling salon in Paris’s Fifth Arrondissement, hasn’t been spared either. He and two other stylists typically see 40 clients a day; since last Wednesday, the visits have slumped to four or five a day, she said.