The judge decided that the gorilla dark store was not a “retail store” and needed to be closed.

The gorilla store was ordered to close.Photo: S Bostas

The “dark store” of the high-speed shipping company Gorillas in Amsterdam’s De Pijp district has been fined € 20,000 or ordered to close.

It is the second warehouse for quick delivery that has failed to overturn court orders in recent months as the local council freezes new store openings and revisits future planning rules.

Over the last two years, a range of businesses have provided all deliveries, from alcohol to biscuits, “to your door in minutes.” Customers place orders via mobile apps, and (electric) cyclists move fast around the city to bring goods from the storeroom to the sofa as soon as possible.

But even in cities like Amsterdam, where competing startups Getir, Zapp, Flink, and Gorillas are competing for market share, there’s a wave of complaints from residents living near warehouses. Windows are usually painted black and are called “dark stores” because customers cannot enter the store and pick up anything from the shelves.

Complaints

Amsterdam has received 906 complaints since January 2021, according to answers to written questions, and ordered the freeze on new dark store openings in January this year. Last month, the city proposed a law banning dark stores from residential and multipurpose areas and limiting them to business parks and industrial areas.

Marieke van Doorninck, Head of Planning, said:

In May, the municipality ordered the closure of three De Pijp-based stores, Getir, Zapp and Gorillas, for not complying with the zoning plan. The Zap branch has left and news has leaked that the company will withdraw from the Dutch market. A court hearing at the Getir branch currently allows customers to pick up and claims to be a regular store, but is scheduled for July.

But the judge on Monday didn’t need the two weeks scheduled to make a decision at the Gerald Dupline gorilla store, just a stone’s throw from the busy Albert Cuypstrat market.

Ordered to close the bike outside the dark store Photo: S Boztas

bothersome

In a court hearing of testimony, Taeun Brom, instead of a gorilla, argued that the warehouse should be considered a “retailer” that falls under the zoning plan, and the real problem the council is trying to solve is for delivery. Claimed to be an excess of bicycles.

“The obvious problem is that the city is more full of delivery bikes than it used to be,” he said. “Given the thoughts behind it, the annoyance from delivery bikes, this seems to be one of the reasons for making a decision and starting enforcement in dark stores.”

He argued that people living in busy neighborhoods couldn’t complain about the inconvenience from new types of business. Brom also said that 92% of complaints about a particular store came from a neighbor upstairs, disturbed by the sound of trolleys and vacuum cleaners that would also cause a toy store. He said the gorilla “began to insulate the building to ensure that it tackled noise pollution.”

Reinier van Velden, the head of the Dutch gorilla legal department, added that he felt that the email to the council president did not respond. He also accused council guards of “attempting to tamper with the report” without evidence.

Residential area battle

loss

Remco Sipman, acting on behalf of the Amsterdam City Council, said that gorilla warehouses do not meet the legal definition of “retailers” and no permission is required to legalize them, and it is the will of the parliament to do this anyway. Said it wasn’t. To “public turmoil”.

The judge told the gorilla at a hearing that he was acting at his own risk when moving to the location without confirming that it was in conformity with the zoning plan, but it actually violated the building permit. I decided that. He gave the gorillas a cleanup and shutdown until midnight on Friday, June 24th.

On Saturday morning, most gorilla bikes went out of the store and the deliveryman wasn’t visible, but there was a light inside.

The Dutch media is feeling pressure from investors to demonstrate that the new ruling has already announced unemployment and that it could be profitable at the end of the venture capital funded fast delivery company sector I am wondering if it is the beginning of.

reaction

Joost Munning, who compiled complaints from 115 locals about harassment related to De Pijp’s dark store last November, said the judge was “pleased” to support the city’s closure order.

“The direct neighbor I talked to was absolutely excited about the noise of truck loading and unloading and the lack of bicycles on the sidewalk,” he said in an email. ‘I live next to the Zap Dark Store [which has closed], No more noise pollution. They don’t wake me up at 6 or 7 in the morning anymore. I am very relieved. I feel like I’m regaining my neighborhood. “

Dutch News sought a response from Gorillas and Bleinheim, a Gorillas law firm.