Paris: deemed “harmful for small businesses”, there are now more than 60 “dark stores” in the capital
Zapp, Gopuff, Gorillas, Getir, Cajoo… According to a study, there are now 60 “dark stores” in the capital, occupied by brands specializing in the ultra-fast delivery of basic necessities. Some elected officials urging them to be punished, so as not to kill local businesses.
The system is simple: deployed almost everywhere in Paris, most often on the ground floor of buildings giving directly onto the street, these “dark stores” make it possible to store basic necessities (food and hygiene…), which will then be delivered in record time – sometimes in ten minutes – by delivery people on scooters or bicycles.
“Dark stores” installed in the heart of Paris
A recent study by Apur (Parisian urban planning workshop) brings their number to 60 in Paris. “Currently, a dozen operators of” dark stores “have started to take a position in Paris and in the metropolis”, explains Apur, which adds that these “dark stores” have settled “in the heart of dense districts” , “in small areas […] with often opacified windows”, “thus competing with the food businesses located around”.
According to BDCom data revealed by Apur, half of these 60 premises used today by these “dark stores” were indeed “formerly shops or commercial services”. Or 30 “dark stores” to replace, among other things, “11 mini-markets, 5 furniture stores, 2 fashion stores or 3 restaurants”, details Apur. The remaining 30 have replaced offices, but also medical or paramedical practices or car parks.
A reality denounced by Emile Meunier, elected Parisian, member of the group of Ecologists at the Council of Paris, who considers these “dark stores” particularly “harmful for small businesses” but also for “the animation of the district”, not to mention the ” delivery workers subjected to deplorable working conditions”. “The real subject is when there is a shop and we make it a “dark store” in a warehouse logic, because we are competing with local shops”, he regrets.
“ONE MUST BE WITHOUT PITY”
Moreover, according to him, these warehouses would not respect the rules of town planning. “The study indeed raises 3 points: the first is that the PLU does not accept warehouses in residential buildings, the second is that certain streets are subject to commercial protection, in particular crafts, or when you replace a business with a “dark store”, there is a change of destination prohibited, and the third is that the “dark stores” do not have the right to hide their storefront”, he explains .
At the request of@ecoloParis, the APUR carried out a study on dark stores. They are winners for the small trade, the animation of the district and the deliverymen subjected to deplorable working conditions. These warehouses do not comply with town planning rules. We must punish. pic.twitter.com/qxpWCiYpCk
— Emile Meunier (@emilemeunier) February 28, 2022
“We already have the tools to sanction them, or even ban them”, believes Emile Meunier, for whom “we must not wait for the revision of the PLU, we must be able to act now on the basis of the current regulations”. ” Since then that there is an infraction, it must be sanctioned. Because we are in a logic of predation of the market, that of “winner takes all”. It is up to the City to do it and we must be ruthless”.
And the risk, according to the elected environmentalist, is that the rise in power of these brands – some of which raise funds that present a billion euros – does not stop there. The best example according to him? “It’s Airbnb, which we weren’t suspicious of, and which today represents 20,000 fewer homes for Parisians.” And to conclude: “the” dark stores “are to shops, what Airbnb is to housing”.
Criticized and criticizable practices
Practices founded by Apur, which explain that the signs of “dark stores” benefited for a few months “from an effect of novelty and a certain vagueness around the legal status of their activity”, allowing them “to s ‘install on the ground floor of a residential building to replace shops or offices’. And this, “without seeking the necessary planning permission, sometimes even contravening the commercial protections of the local urban plan”.
But at the stage of what happened in Paris during the explosion in the number of free-floating electric scooter operators, some could quickly throw in the towel and go bankrupt. In any case, this is what Apur suggests, for which “it is very likely that their number will be reduced, the market probably not being large enough for so many candidates”.
According to the Atelier parisien d’urbanisme, a first operator would also have been “placed in receivership at the beginning of December 2021”, definitively stopping its activity, while others are currently “in talks with a view to collaborations and regrouping of their activities, to see if their growth will allow them to pre-empt new businesses.
In a column published in Jdd.fr last December, the first deputy mayor of Paris Emmanuel Grégoire had already expressed his fears on this subject. Assuring that “no law allows direct regulation of dark stores”, this elected official in charge of urban planning had announced that he wanted to “take the necessary measures” in order to “enforce” the PLU. And had promised “heavy financial and penal consequences for the recalcitrant”.