The “dark stores” are warehouses and not shops, the government decided on Friday March 24, paving the way for the regulation of this activity by the town halls. The business model of these platforms, which have spread to large cities in recent years, overwhelms local residents and municipalities alike.
A dark store is a room used to store meals or groceries intended for home delivery. Companies like Gorillas, Flink, Deliveroo, Getir or Gopuff have deployed a myriad of them to satisfy their urban customers. At the end of 2022, the urban planning assistant of the town hall of Paris estimated that they were between 150 and 200 in France, including a hundred in Paris.
The operation is simple: the buyer establishes a shopping list on a platform and a delivery man goes to a dark store to find them. Only the agents of these companies can access the shelves, which guarantees the availability of the products and a short delivery time, generally between 10 to 15 minutes. As to dark kitchensthey refer to kitchens that are not attached to a restaurant and only used to prepare the dishes sold on Uber Eats or Deliveroo.
A threat to the local economy
A trick that threatens neighborhood life and the local economy for its detractors, insofar as these premises threaten to replace local shops. The latter also accuse them of unfair competition.
Especially since these places must be installed in places where the population is dense in order to reach a maximum of potential customers. Activity is abundant there, and local residents regularly complain about the noise pollution caused by the parade of delivery men, sometimes on scooters, who crowd around these dark stores. This situation is aggravated by the fact that these warehouses are open every day and that they operate from early morning to late at night.
A conflict with the municipalities
This mode of operation has given rise to a conflict between the companies, which believe that the dark stores are businesses, and some municipalities, which claim that these premises are warehouses, since they do not accommodate customers. The government’s decision to decide in favor of the Cities will have consequences, since warehouses are subject to different planning rules, and it is much easier to open a business anywhere.
Municipalities will now be able to decide whether dark stores may or may not settle in a given place. If they have been very critical of their model, some cities grant them a usefulness and should allow them to continue to exist outside the city centers. Anne Hidalgo had particularly underlined their interest in the elderly.