As a Parisien, I can give you my humble opinion. I totally like Amazon move, I am sure it can be convenient and save me ton of time BUT I will never trade this time for the liveliness of my neighborhood.<p>I love having a walk from my flat, go to the butcher and my vegetable seller. I like it because I can see the products, because it creates a sense of community in the neighborhood, because I know the butcher and he knows me.<p>Performance, convenience and business is a part of my life but it will never be my whole life.<p>Btw, I would be very interested by different cultural point of view on this whole story.
I'm always amused by the different default positions that different legal systems take. In America the default position would be (outside of certain highly regulated industries like drugs/medical) "let them do what they want unless a problem arises". But it seems the French approach is reversed, and they take it as a foregone conclusion to impose regulation up front.<p>I'm sure someone more in favor of the French approach could describe it in more favorable terms, but to my American sensibilities it seems almost totalitarian.
> Paris city hall has also said it will look out for unwanted side-effects of the operation, including increased traffic and pollution.<p>Maybe the service reduces traffic and pollution? If people stay at home and order groceries instead of taking their cars to the supermarket you probably reduce traffic. One delivery truck on an optimized route should drive fewer km than individual cars.
This sounds to me like they are saying "Their business model is more efficient, and therefore it will be hard to compete with it, so let's ban it instead".
France is in trouble. They badly need reforms to be able to compete but they are unwilling to let go of their hard earned amenities.<p>Related link: <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/french-workers-are-protesting-against-reforms-even-a-socialist-says-are-necessary-2016-06-10" rel="nofollow">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/french-workers-are-protesti...</a>
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The central Parisians seem quite content to suppress economic activity and job creation while the suburbs churn with joblessness, poverty and discontent.
All I can say is -- if Amazon wants to plaster their slogans everywhere imaginable (above doorways at their facility; and literally on the backs of their workers - going by the photo midway down the article), they can at least have the decency to do so in the native language.
I'm not really familiar with the service, but from where does Amazon get the groceries they deliver? Could they not enter into an agreement with Parisian stores to deliver their products?