In a warehouse in the south of France, I have in front of me a large package marked Amazon. I try to guess what's inside by shaking it. He makes noise. Should I therefore deduce that the object inside has value?
A salesman shows me another package. “Rectangular packages often contain smartphones,” he explains, sure of his fact. But it would still be better if we could look through the packaging.
A new form of shopping is developing in France and Spain. Customers looking for good deals flock to warehouses filled with packages with a wide variety of contents. The only problem is that no one knows in advance what's inside.
Every year around the world, tens of millions of packages do not reach their recipient. The reasons are multiple: the buyer may have had the wrong address, he moved, his business closed or he died, it can happen. Previously, delivery companies simply destroyed these packages. But, in 2020, France introduced a new law prohibiting their incineration. If no one claims their package within three months, the carrier, such as DHL or Hermes (a German company), effectively becomes the legal owner.
Sensing a lucrative niche, entrepreneurs began buying these packages by whole pallets and reselling them by the kilo.
“We find everything here”, explains Vivien Caspar, who works at Destock Colis, the store in the village of Sauvian, near Béziers. “iPhones, headphones, speakers. Computers, tablets, clothes, shoes, lingerie”.
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There is a rule to follow: customers are not allowed to open packages before purchasing. So the latter hesitate, they feel the softest packages, shake the biggest ones while trying to become what is inside at the noise
