The shop is called Yoyo, it is located in Conches-en-Ouche, in Eure. Twenty years that its showcase promises: “Masculine Feminine, Shoes and Accessories”. Three customers are waiting at the checkout. Curiously, nothing in their arms, but their phone clutched in their hand. The saleswoman disappears into the back room. She comes back laden with boxes and limp parcels, parcels. A second-hand clothes bought on Vinted? Clothes bought cheap on a Chinese site? Nowhere better than in these relay points can one observe so closely the fate of these small traders, required to survive to carry the parcels of those who bury them. In the world of e-commerce, this is called the “last mile” problem. You can have the most sophisticated online platform in the world, with clever algorithms and robot-driven warehouses, if there is no one to pick up your package, these prowess is useless.
Everywhere in France, dry cleaners, opticians, shoe stores have slowly turned into post offices, and this is a French specialty. In Germany, you pick up your package at the locker; in the United States, with its neighbour. In France, we go to the wine merchant or the smartphone repairer, sometimes even to the one who manufactures, sells or repairs what the packages contain.
We have recently become accustomed to seeing boxes invade shelves in a corner of the dry cleaners or at the grocery store. But for many traders, it is not new. The Avia service station in Fleurance (Gers) has been handling parcels for around twenty years. At the time, it was those of the 3Suisses. About ten arrived a day and the customers had white hair. Today, Annie receives around a hundred daily, three times more during the holiday season, and that brings in a younger clientele, people who didn’t necessarily know that she also did grocery shopping or fitted tires.
When 3Suisses and La Redoute developed their logistics subsidiaries in the early 1980s, it was to escape the strikes at La Poste. Sogep-Relais Colis then became a subsidiary of La Redoute and promised forty-eight – then twenty-four – hours “chrono”, while Mondial Relay developed for 3Suisses. Since then, the habit of selling by mail has taken hold: Mondial Relay now has 11,000 relay points, compared to 6,500 for Relais Colis and 16,000 for Pickup, the La Poste network.
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