Retail Logistics in France: The Coming of Vertical Disintegration

Since the end of the 1980s, logistics in French mass distribution has undergone a progressive vertical disintegration, with contractors taking a greater role in physical distribution. While food retailers state in the professional press that this disintegration has the inevitable consequence of leading to contractual based relationships rather than transaction based relationships, the reality appears to be to think in terms of price competition with short‐term contracts renewable at the expiration date. There is a lack of intent to share capital investments in outbound logistics between retailers and contractors to improve customer service. The few current experiments in relational contracts may mean a possible change of strategy whose interpretations and limits will be described in this article.