Cheap goods, off the back of a lorry: the parallel market business | En quête d'actualité | Direct8

Yogurt, clothing or major brand cosmetics, all sold at a quarter of the normal price! It’s not happening in a discount store or on the Internet… but right on the street. With the crisis, this parallel market has taken over the sidewalks of all major French cities. Situated somewhere between petty crime and a means of getting by, the activity sometimes conceals organised networks who manage to elude the watchful eye of the Customs or the Social Services. Over four months, a team investigated the origin of the products and the suppliers’ networks, taking a close look at one of the most emblematic locations of this parallel economy: the Barbès quarter in Paris.