Ten tons of ‘lost’ packages, which never reached their destination, are being sold at Woensel shopping centre this week. Buying these packages is a trend that started in France, but is now slowly becoming popular throughout Europe. It is the first time that the packages are for sale in Eindhoven. “You have to do this for the excitement”.
“It started during COVID pandemic”, Killian Denis, the creator of the concept, says. “I was ordering a lot of toys online for my kids to keep them busy. I noticed that a lot of my packages weren’t arriving and I wondered where these packages were going”.
Waste
He found out that around 150 tons of packages are destroyed in Europe every month. A huge waste. “These packages are usually lost because people fill in their address incorrectly or because the label with the delivery address gets damaged during the journey. So many packages are sent worldwide that logistics companies choose to destroy and give consumers their money back, because it is cheaper than sending the package back. You should try asking Amazon for a refund because you are not satisfied with your product. They will transfer the money within a minute, because they make so much money that they don’t care”, Denis explains.
‘Treasure hunt’
When you buy a package, you don’t know in advance what is inside. This is also the reason why many people in Woensel buy the packages. “You shouldn’t do it for the stuff, but for the excitement of opening it, searching for the treasure”, a woman, who has just opened a package with a hair removal kit, says. By feeling and shaking the package up and down a bit, customers try to guess what’s inside, but this turns out to be very difficult. “I think these are shoes!”, a woman shouts enthusiastically.
The packages are sold by weight. Customers pay around €2 per 100 grams. Many Eindhoven residents hope to strike it lucky and walk away with large bags filled with several kilos of packages. It doesn’t get much more exciting than ink cartridges, balloons and a disposable camera. Still, there are people who find real treasures, Denis says. “In France, a woman found a gold bar worth €2,000. You also regularly see Rolexes, iPads and expensive designer clothes”. The pop-up store is open until Saturday.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
