New “dark store” warehouses abound in Paris. So much so that Emmanuel Grégoire, the first deputy mayor of Paris, decided to bang his fist on the table this Sunday, December 19, denouncing in a column published on jdd.fr the perverse effects of this system which weakens the traditional trade.
Often located on the ground floor in certain districts of the center of the capital but without a storefront, these supermarkets without customers – called “dark stores” – are only intended for home delivery. A uberization of society pushed to its climax in a city where there are supermarkets everywhere, open all the time.
Feet of buildings preempted in warehouses
This is precisely what Emmanuel Grégoire denounces in this forum, regretting that the “feet of living buildings” – which he says constitute “a privileged meeting point between the street, the building and the inhabitants” – are preempted by “ blind retailers ”to the detriment of convenience stores. “Terraces, storefronts, shop windows are invaluable social interfaces”, recalls the elected official.
“More than a dozen ‘quick-trade’ platforms now share the Parisian market, transforming local shops into places for storing goods, which see crowds of hundreds of people marching past them every day. deliverers ”, testifies again the deputy in charge of town planning.
The latter also points to the environmental record of these home deliveries, often carried out by scooter, but also social, while the deliverers do not always have an employment contract. “Can we agree to allow such precariousness of delivery people to normalize, who are essentially self-employed, deprived of social security and subject to good customer ratings?” He wonders.
A compulsory authorization request?
To deal with these drifts, the first deputy decided to bring out the rules of the Parisian local urban plan (PLU). In this case, he recalls for example that “one does not set up a warehouse without asking the authorization of the community”. A rule “that operators have strangely forgotten”, he quipped.
And if he concedes that “no law allows direct regulation of dark stores”, Emmanuel Grégoire intends to “take the necessary measures” to “enforce” this rule “to brands that have not requested authorization to set up a warehouse ”. And promises “heavy financial and penal consequences for the recalcitrant”.