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The store has briefly opened in the Rosaleda shopping centre in Malaga city. Ñito Salas
The Malaga store where shoppers buy packages 'blind' and by weight... from well-known web retailers including Amazon and Shein
Retail

The Malaga store where shoppers buy packages 'blind' and by weight... from well-known web retailers including Amazon and Shein

The ephemeral shop, which sells lost or unclaimed goods, will only be open in the city until Saturday night, when it will then move to Alicante

Juan Soto

Malaga

Friday, 30 August 2024, 18:47

It seems more than a shop, it's more like a game. The people who visit Destock Colis, a new shop that has just opened its doors in Malaga city, come to play rather than to buy something they need. "This is like a raffle that always offers prizes," its workers tell anyone who decides to participate.

Located in the Rosaleda shopping centre, this is an ephemeral shop (it will barely be open for a week) that sells internet packages that get lost in the limbo of the networks and never reach their final recipients. With a particularity that makes it unique, they are sold in the same packaging in which they were sent, completely closed and which cannot be opened to see what they contain.

This original concept shop will be open in Malaga until Saturday, and will then follow a route through Spain that will take it to the city of Alicante. Inside the store, the products are sold by weight without any kind of clue: 100 grams cost 1.50 euros. Buyers have the chance of picking up fashion items, footwear, accessories, jewellery, household goods and electronics. All the items, without any distinction, are piled up in huge container boxes without being organised by type or section.

With the sense of sight, which is basic and necessary to make any standard purchase, cancelled out, potential customers are left with only touch and intuition. Many try to find out what it is by looking at it with the naked eye. "This is a pair of high heels." "It looks like there's something round like a ball." "Look! I'm sure it's a pair of slippers... but what size?" Just spending a short time at the door of the shop - where there are usually long queues - is enough time to hear all kinds of questions and comments.

Marilyn Edelza, one of the people in charge of organising the shop, tells one anecdote that happened during the last few days:The other day a girl bought some Prada glasses for one euro and she didn't want them because she didn't even know what they were. She wanted to leave them here, but it was her partner who told her they were good quality."

"This, in the end, is like a game; a raffle that always comes up trumps," she added.

It is an ephemeral shop that will be open only until Saturday, when it will move to Alicante

In a little more depth, she explained that the company she works for, Destock Colis, was born in France and has been specialising in the sale of unclaimed lost parcels in different European cities (France, Belgium and now Spain) for about two years. They mostly offer items from Amazon, although they also have agreements with other delivery companies and private companies, such as Shein, to prevent these packages from being destroyed or incinerated. "It's about helping to create a circular economy and collaborating with recycling," she explained.

The shop assistant is not able to calculate the number of items that will be sold during the whole week in Malaga, but warned that they will only remain in the city until Saturday night when the shopping complex closes. Although she does not have an estimate, the fact is that she is constantly replenishing the boxes so that they are always overflowing with items.

As it is an ephemeral shop, the premises only have a few small signs with the price per kilo This is why there is a constant stream of curious onlookers. "What is this?" "Can I open the packages?" "What if I don't like it?" But here there is no right to return or to look. "If you open it, you take it." That's the rule of the game.

Anti-waste law

Destock Colis is run by Christelle Martinez and her husband, who opened their first shop in the French town of Hérault. The couple started the business in 2022 following the passing of the anti-waste law in Europe, a regulation that has limited the destruction of unsold non-food items in order to encourage donations to associations fighting against precariousness and to promote recycling.

"It is a way of giving objects a second life and fighting against waste. In these packages we find everything that can be sent over the internet," explains Christelle Martínez on their website. They collect the packages from logistics centres after a year and always after no one has claimed or collected them.

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surinenglish The Malaga store where shoppers buy packages 'blind' and by weight... from well-known web retailers including Amazon and Shein