Will the vending machine herald the resurrection of local commerce and producers?
Last September, the president of the company “Le casier français” was delighted with this rescue via these solutions accessible in “phygital” (contraction of physical and digital), a concept imagined by marketing experts.
In France, these machines appeared in the mid-1980s… There are nearly 600,000 distributors in France, 70% of which are in businesses. During the period, bakeries, cafes and grocery stores experienced a steady decline. In 2021, 62% of municipalities did not have any retail stores. They were only 53% 15 years ago.
So, for several years, this market of distributors outside the walls has exploded: pizzas, bread, flowers, andouillettes, Breton pancakes, bouquets of flowers, oysters or cheeses… In a town center, along a departmental road, in front of the supermarkets or in parking areas.
A real service for peri-urban and rural residents who can obtain supplies at any time of the day or night.
Why such success? Should we see this as a symptom of the decline of the countryside and peri-urban areas or as a remedy for the difficulty of maintaining local businesses?
At a time when life is more expensive, when working hours are getting longer for some of us, when schedules are shifting to the point where our eating habits are changing… Will the pizza kiosk become is it the new tool of commensality, this art of sharing meals?
To read to go further:
Céline Massal's study on local commerce in rural areas (2018) on the Géoconfluences website.
“It’s not expensive, it’s practical, it’s tasty and it’s warming”: how 24/7 pizza distributors have conquered peri-urban France, article from Libération
“We placed a “potato box” at the entrance to the farm, it worked straight away” : in the countryside, the rise of vending machines, article published in Le Monde
“Rethinking “ugly France” without rethinking the city is a cautery on a wooden leg”column by Nicolas Lebrun published in Le Monde
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