The dark stores of flash delivery companies like Gorillas, Getir and Flink are shooting up like mushrooms. Amsterdam alone had 31 dark stores at the beginning of this year. If it is up to the municipality, they will stay there for the time being. Rotterdam has also announced that it does not want any more dark stores for a year.
The dark stores, small distribution centres in former shops with boarded-up windows, are often located in the middle of residential areas. This allows flash delivery services to provide their customers with their groceries within minutes, but residents complain about nuisance caused by delivery drivers and trucks that supply and block the pavement. Moreover, the boarded-up windows don't make for a pretty sight.
The municipality of Amsterdam has now decided not to allow any new dark stores in the city for a maximum of one year. In the meantime, it is working on conditions that flash movers must comply with. For now, no special permit is needed to open a dark store. Stores and flash delivery services are not yet covered by a zoning plan.
The question is whether dark stores will have to move to business parks as a result. If so, the promise of delivery within ten minutes becomes more difficult. "How interesting is it then, or do consumers not mind so much if they soon have to wait a bit longer, say half an hour, instead of ten minutes?" argues Dirk Mulder, retail expert at ING to RTL.
Mulder does expect flash delivery to be an irreversible trend. "It's very popular with young people and young families, you can't just put it away. But you can see if you can't regulate it better, limiting the inconvenience to the surrounding area."
Update 10-2: Following Amsterdam, Rotterdam has also banned new dark stores for at least a year. The city now has some 13 dark stores. Rotterdam is now working on a new zoning square distinguishing between shops and retail distribution centres.
