More Dutch cities taking measures against rapid grocery and dark stores

Four large Dutch municipalities are following Amsterdam and Rotterdam's example and are taking measures against rapid grocery delivery services. The Hague, Groningen, Arnhem, and Amstelveen want to prevent the rapid growth of these fast deliverers from causing problems in the cities, NRC reports after speaking to 27 of 29 Dutch municipalities rapid delivers like Getir, Flink, Gorillas, and Zapp are active in.

Of the 23 cities that responded, nine said they regularly get complaints of nuisance caused by rapid delivery services. Most complaints involve noise pollution, increased traffic, and improperly parked bicycles.

NRC did not speak to Amsterdam and Rotterdam because they already decided to ban any new rapid delivery branches or dark stores - distribution hubs for the services - opening in the cities for the next year. The Hague, Groningen, Arnhem, and Amstelveen are now also working on policies that would allow them to ban dark stores in some areas.

Groningen, for example, wants to protect the "core shopping area" and prevent the "commercial storage" of delivery vans and bicycles. Arnhem said it intends to require rapid delivery services to get a permit before opening dark stores or branches.

Almere, Enschede, Delft, and Leiden said they are investigating the possibilities but have no firm plans to limit rapid delivery services yet.

The rapid delivery services promise grocery deliveries within 20 minutes. To achieve this, they open distribution centers as close to the customer as possible, so often within residential neighborhoods. These are referred to as "dark stores" because they open in store locations and often cover the windows.

A recent study by GfK showed that the use of rapid delivery services doubled between August and December 2021. According to the market researcher, Flink is the most popular rapid delivery service, with 52 percent of users using this company. Gorillas is in a close second at 48 percent, followed by Getir at 21 percent, and Zapp at 15 percent.