French people are doing more and more of their grocery shopping from vending machines. This new trend, known as vente en casier, has expanded mostly in rural areas and cities with fewer than 100,000 inhabitants, and is seen as the result of small-business owners having grown dissatisfied with big retail-stores’ partners and policies that have squeezed their prices and margins.
Didier Filbing, director of Filbing Distribution: “I wanted to bring a solution so that producers would be able to set their own price.” His company is one of France’s leaders in the sector with more than 800 vending machines across France. Filbing said he has seen between 20 and 30%-growth each year from 2012 to 2021, in a market devoid of any competitors until around 2014/2015.
Owners – mostly local farmers – fill ‘casiers’ with their goods which often including eggs, meats, dairy produce, fruits, vegetables or bread.
Source: connexionfrance.com
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