Politico - Cities’ next headache: Ultrafast grocery delivery

Airbnb showed that one person's convenience could become another's annoyance.

Now, European city councils face deep-pocketed startups promising to bring groceries to residents' doorsteps "within minutes" through online or in-app ordering. To that end, firms are setting up so-called dark stores, micro-warehouses where orders are fulfilled and collected by couriers for delivery.

City councils fear that such dark stores will take over shopping-street storefronts, reduce commercial foot traffic or cause nuisances in residential neighborhoods. Some cities, like Amsterdam, have already ordered dark stores to relocate — or are investigating whether such stores can stay. But — as with Uber, food-delivery couriers and e-scooters before — the growing trend has caught cities off-guard.

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Amsterdam's city council is preparing a framework for how to deal with these kinds of warehouses — something city councillor Elisabeth IJmker has been asking for since the summer.

"When Airbnb landed, we were quite late with dealing with the negative consequences. For me, this was a reason to start asking quite early, before the summer, to have a look at this," IJmker said.

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