“Dark stores”: the government categorizes these stores as warehouses to better regulate them

In the heart of the big cities, noisy scooters make incessant brooms, at all hours of the day. The cause ? The “dark blinds” and “dark kitchen“, former businesses transformed into a place of storage and delivery of groceries and meals. The goal is to bring your groceries as quickly as possible, even at night. In these stores or phantom kitchens, only delivery people enter. Traders accuse these stores of impoverishing life in city centers.

For a restaurateur, it’s unfair competition. “A restaurant or business that gives in the street is subject to taxes which are related to the road network, to the visibility of the establishment. These taxes are not to be borne by the ‘dark kitchen'”explains Ewa Fontaine, co-manager of the restaurant “Le Mesturet“. Not really shops, not quite warehouses, it is difficult for mayors to regulate their installation. A legal vagueness that the government decided on Tuesday, September 6, by now categorizing them as warehouses.