The metropolises declare war on the “ghost warehouses”. The “dark shops” and “dark kitchens” that have developed at breakneck speed in recent months in France have been at the center of a new controversy for a few days. In question, a draft decree and a draft decree aimed at better regulating these establishments but whose content is far from satisfying the elected officials of the large cities who wish to curb their establishment.
• What are “dark stores”?
Embodiments of “fast trade” that allow products to be ordered online and delivered within minutes, “dark shops” and “dark kitchens” are former commercial premises converted into mini-warehouses in the city center. The former store everyday consumer products while the latter are kitchens not attached to a restaurant, only intended for the delivery of dishes.
Taking advantage of a certain legal vagueness, “fast trade” players such as the German Gorilas, the French Cajoo or the Turkish Getir have multiplied the development of these establishments in metropolitan areas since 2020, thanks to confinements and successive fire cover-ups.
In January, the Parisian Urban Planning Workshop (Apur), dependent on the city council, counted more than 80 “dark shops” in Paris and its inner suburbs, and at least 25 “dark kitchens” in the capital. The phenomenon is emerging in other big cities like Lyon, Nice or Bordeaux. In 2021, this activity generated 1.2 billion euros in sales. That’s 86% growth.
• What do the elected officials of the metropolises reproach the “dark stores”?
Incessant comings and goings of delivery people likely to disturb the neighbors, more than questionable working conditions, unfair competition for local businesses, purchase of commercial premises that contributes to the rise in real estate prices… The arguments of the elected representatives of big cities to curb the development of “dark shops” and “dark kitchens” are numerous.
But it is also and above all the legal definition of these premises that is at the center of the controversy. The city of Paris, which has been raising its voice against fast trade for several months, considers “dark shops” to be warehouses. In this sense, they are expected to comply with a series of urban regulations given the inconvenience they cause.
Among them: the prohibition by the local urban plan to install logistics sites in certain areas on the ground floors and basements of residential buildings. However, the “dark stores” that occupy mostly commercial premises, the municipality says it has the right to sanction them.
At the beginning of July, the deputy mayor of Paris, Emmanuel Grégoire, announced the first economic sanctions against “dark stores” that do not comply with urban planning regulations. The elected had declared that he wanted to “take by the throat”, with economic sanctions of 500 euros per day and a maximum of 25,000 euros per store, “the large operators of dark stores that” for many are totally illegal “.
• Why elected officials are worried about the government project
Last week, Emmanuel Grégoire expressed his “concern” and his “incomprehension” about a draft government decree “that actually legalizes obscure stores.” According to him, this text would allow these establishments to be considered as places of commerce or restaurants, and not as warehouses, as long as they have a collection point for the public. Clearly, a simple accountant.
For his part, the Delegate Minister of the Minister for the Ecological Transition, responsible for the City and Housing, confirmed that a draft decree and a draft decree are “under development”, in particular to “better supervise the development of the ‘ dark shops'”. “dark kitchens” and “clarify the status of these premises”.
A “consultation” has been underway “for six weeks,” said this source. The project “was submitted in July to the consultation of the different actors (local authorities and interested professionals). This consultation allowed to collect the first comments and the different proposals of the actors on the text”, according to the same source. “In the coming weeks, the work of adapting the text and consulting the actors involved will continue to better reconcile the different issues,” we added.
• What do the elected representatives of the metropolises demand?
On Friday, a letter sent by a dozen elected officials from large cities to Elisabeth Borne demands “that the municipalities where the ‘dark shops’ thrive ‘have the legal means to regulate them and effectively combat all the negative externalities they produce'” .
Among the first signatories, the mayors of Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lille, Besançon, Villeurbanne and Montreuil. To these socialist, environmentalist and communist leaders are added two right-wing elected officials, the president of the metropolis of Greater Paris Patrick Ollier and that of the Association of Mayors of Ile-de-France Stéphane Baudet.
These elected officials judge that the new regulations provided by the Government “cannot be in any way adequate since it endorses, in fact, the ‘dark city’ model and removes from the municipalities the main lever that could operate to regulate these establishments” . .
For its part, the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME) Paris Ile-de-France urged on Friday “the government to establish the legal framework for a strong and territorialized regulation of rapid trade in Paris to fill the legal framework gap in the that this activity has developed rapidly in the capital, where it already accounts for more than 25% of home food deliveries, all too often at the expense of local merchants and local residents”.
Source: BFM TV
