French government wants to limit number of pick-up points

“Legal vacuum”

Pinol wants to pass a draft bill next month, which would
set up a legal frame for the start-up of “drives”, as the French call pick-up
points for online orders of supermarkets.

The minister follows a fellow socialist
party member, who found it illogical that the opening of such a drive does not
have to be presented to the commission that oversees the implementation of new retail initiatives. At
the moment it is enough to submit a building permit or to redesign an existing
room, to start a pick-up point in France.

2.5% market share

Five years ago the phenomenon of pick-up points
was almost non-existent in France. In 2010 Auchan introduced the concept on a
larger scale in French retail with ChronoDrive and since then almost all large
distributors have joined the party. At the beginning of 2012 there were about a
thousand drives in France, at the end of January that were more than 2,000 (see
graph) and at the end of this year there will be over 3,000, according to a
study by A3Distrib.

Drives are worth 2.5% of the market share in
France – more than the complete market share of Aldi France for example.
According to several studies that market share will rise to 6% of the food market
by 2015, worth sales of over five billion euro. No less than 15% of French
families use it regularly.

At the moment most drives are linked to a
physical store, but A3Distrib predicts a quick rise of the number of “drive
solo” pick-up points, which have no link to a supermarket.