Tatiana Geiselmann (in Erstein) / Photo credit: Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 09:20 am, May 22, 2023

Every day, Europe 1 looks at an idea or a problem in your daily life. Food vending machines have been installed in some municipalities throughout France, in addition to traditional grocery stores. In the Bas-Rhin, a giant distributor, with 400 references, allows residents to do small shopping. Europe 1 tested it.

It is sometimes the galley of Sunday evening: you open your fridge and there, no butter for your recipe. If you live in the city, you will find a mini market without much worry. In the countryside, there are now vending machines for butter, vegetables, pizzas... Machines accessible day and night. This may replace the traditional local shops that have disappeared in a third of French municipalities. And in the Bas-Rhin, in Erstein, it is even a giant distributor that has just been installed and has 400 references. Cheese, toilet paper, biscuits... Europe 1 tested the grocery store of the future.

"On Sunday, there is nothing so we fall back on it"

From the outside, it looks like a big ATM, but it is not euros but fruit juices that Marie-Claude came to get there. She has just placed an order on the touch screen. "It's the first time I've used it, here I put my ticket and the products are there," she says as she picks up her groceries.

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Less than a minute later, a hatch opens and his purchases appear, placed on a tray. "Unlike Strasbourg where I lived before, at that time, on Sunday afternoon, there is nothing so we fall back on it," explains Marie-Claude.

Complementary to traditional grocery stores

And it is indeed on Sundays and public holidays as well as in the evening, between 21 p.m. and midnight, that Serge Foster, who owns the distributor, notes a peak in sales. "Today, we are really on complementary. You forgot to buy your butter at the supermarket, you come at any time to pick it up, which is not possible in a traditional grocery store."

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And the 400 products in its catalog differ from that of a traditional grocery store with many emergency products. "The latest example: I brought diapers in because obviously, it's hardly something you find on a Sunday," says the manager of the distributor. On the other hand, it does not offer bread, because there is already a distributor of bakery products, accessible on Sundays at the entrance of the town.