Amazon started building one logistics warehouse in the Logis Empordà at the end of May on a plot of 85,000 square meters, in the lighthouse of Empordà, in the Alt Empordà. The multinational strategically chose this position with the aim of providing France – and especially northern Catalonia – where it has problems settling. Only a few months later, however, and despite opposition from various sectors, the logistics giant closed an agreement to build a smaller warehouse -5,000 square meters- in Ribesaltes, just ten minutes from Perpignan. Two “complementary” centers that will allow the company to position itself on both sides of the border as the debate – and opposition – on the e-commerce model grows.
The open battle between certain sectors of France once morest the e-commerce giant suggested that he would give up settling near Perpignan and that he would take advantage of the location of the Logis Empordà – just 40 kilometers away – to supply the other side of the Pyrenees. . In fact, the company has planned three major platforms in France. And one, 185,000 square meters, in Nimes is stopped by an Administrative Court.
The placidity with which the multinational opens centers a few kilometers from the border suggested that opponents of the project, including the association Alternatiba66 or the Confederation of Merchants of France, had won the struggle but soon following work began on Logis Empordà, in the lighthouse, the urban community of Perpignan Mediterrània (PMM) announced that a smaller warehouse – called the last mile – would finally be installed in Ribesaltes.
This center, of 5,000 square meters, will function as a kind of intermediate warehouse where deliveries arrive from the nearby logistics centers and then are distributed throughout the area. “We were told that if you resist the implementation of Amazon in Ribesaltes, it will go to Figueres, but it is not our resistance that is holding them back, but the geostrategic factor,” explains Eric Le Balier, a member of Alternatiba66. “Everything suggests that the largest warehouse in Figueres should feed the one in Perpignan, as is the case everywhere because it is the Amazon system: to build large warehouses and then smaller ones,” he said. adds Le Balier.
In fact, the Logis Empordà is being built on an area of 85,000 square meters – with the possibility of doubling space – and, with the works practically finished, it is expected to open at the beginning of this year. The one in Ribesaltes, with an investment of more than 10 MEUR, will do so immediately.
For opponents, such as Alternatiba66, the installation of the logistics giant is far from an opportunity for the territory. Or at least in the long run. Among the reasons for opposing it: taxes, which he pays outside the French state, “precarious” and “unacceptable” working conditions, secrecy and the destruction of jobs, in addition to the “evil” that, they say. , this type of e-commerce is done in local stores.
To all this, he points out, is the “secrecy” with which the company works. “People who sign with Amazon have no right to say so, just to block any opposition,” he said. The only way to stop this whirlwind, says Le Balier, is for states and Europe to legislate to “regulate its implementation” but admits that this is “difficult” given that it is the largest company in the world.
Two interconnected centers
The fact that the two logistics centers – the Empordà lighthouse and the Ribesaltes lighthouse – will be interconnected and “complementary” is not in question. This is acknowledged by Le Balier and also by the President of the Perpignan Chamber of Commerce, Laurent Gauze, who is Deputy Mayor of Ribesaltes and Vice President of the Urban Community of Perpignan-Mediterranean.
“At first we thought it might be a competition but they will be completely complementary and as Speaker of the House I am glad that both can be done because it is a way to have more connection,” says Gauze. Gauze admits that the multinational is having problems establishing itself in the country but assures that the same is not happening in Perpignan and that, in his opinion, this must be the model. “It’s important to have the biggest logistics here,” he says.
For Gauze, the pandemic has accelerated the expansion of e-commerce and he insists: “The solution is not to say no to Amazon.” And it is said that it is a different way of doing business and must coexist with large stores and small businesses. “People buy like that once and for all,” he insists.
Gauze, on the other hand, denies that the logistics giant is destroying jobs, as opponents argue, and sees its implementation as an opportunity, not only for the territory but also for young people who want to enter the world of work. . In this regard, he recalled that it is expected to generate a hundred direct jobs.
For Le Balier, on the other hand, the numbers speak for themselves. “Today we know that 18,000 jobs have been destroyed as a result of the implementation of Amazon, and that in the United States, for one job in this company, four have disappeared,” he said. “People are slowly becoming more aware, and it’s not just environmentalists who are opposed to it,” he said.
This would explain, he says, why in France the opposition is gaining strength and in Catalonia and in the rest of Spain, on the other hand, it is practically testimonial. “We are two different countries, even though we are close, and we do not have the same way of thinking. It seems good to me as the people of the Empordà see it because the future cannot be rejected “, remarks Gauze.
More road transport
According to Le Balier, however, there is yet another factor to consider. “Of course, logistics platforms involve more road and air transport,” he says. In fact, he says, one of the first consequences that the opening of the two new logistics centers may have is precisely this: an increase in truck traffic on both sides of the border.
“Do we want a robotic society or a society that can live more in harmony and sustain the local economy?” Asks Le Balier.
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