Going to get your bread down the street, establishing human contact with your local shopkeeper, these situations that make up the daily life of many city dwellers are sometimes sorely lacking in certain isolated areas.
Their inhabitants face the closure of basic necessities, sometimes replaced by vending machines.
Whether it's bread, a piece of meat or a prepared dish, the use of these vending machines is growing to allow residents to get supplies at any time of the day near their homes. .
Local producers can also distribute their products.
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A complementary offer in the first place
Before becoming a substitute for physical shops, the use of vending machines was first seen as a means of offering a complementary service to the customer.
Stéphane Boutet, manager of the Au pétrin castellucien bakery in Creuse, has 7 bread vending machines in several surrounding villages in addition to his bakery.
"
The bread is exactly the same as in the shop, it gives us an additional turnover with only one person to pay, the one who fills the machines
".
This is also the case for Sébastien Dona, manager of the pizzeria Azzuro in the Tarn, who rents two pizza vending machines: "
Using my two machines allows me not to increase prices, to offer a hot pizza to the customer and above all to offer an offer outside my working hours at prices that are on average 20% cheaper
,” he explains, adding that these will never replace the establishment of this passionate restaurateur.
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A rapidly expanding offer to compensate for the lack of shops
Pierre Brieunnaud, regional manager of the company Le Distrib, which offers food vending machines, observes that "
A large part of our geographical coverage is located in the most remote areas where bakers, butchers or local producers lack the call.
»
The offers have therefore multiplied in recent years in all types of food production to mesh these territories, based for example on refrigerated lockers in which all types of food can be stored, from the local terrine to the company meal tray . Manuel Moutier, general manager of the Le Casier Français brand, offers Made In France connected lockers in which market gardeners, cheese makers, or even collective catering companies can sell their products, all in compartments ensuring their proper preservation. These new services make it possible to permanently supply the inhabitants of these municipalities, with digital means such as SMS alerts sent to the supplier in the event of a shortage.
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In Saint-Marien in the Creuse, a municipality affected by the phenomenon of commercial deserts, the town hall is pleased with the installation of an automatic bread distributor supplied by the baker of the neighboring village: "
This distributor is a success for the municipality, it provides bread to a mostly elderly population that does not have access to local shops
”.
With an annual cost of 40 euros for electricity paid by the town hall, the distributor set up in 2020 makes it possible to offer a permanent supply of bread and pastries of all kinds, in a municipality which does not have a physical bakery. .
But this type of distribution ends up becoming much more profitable than running a physical store or touring the villages.
As a result, Stéphane Boutet has even planned to close his bakery within a month to invest in 10 additional distributors: "
It's more practical, I earn an average of 80 euros per distributor per day on average, I count rent 10 more and close my bakery within a month.
".
This leads to an acceleration of the desertification of these territories.
Even if the products are accessible, the human presence will therefore disappear.
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