Arnaud Userstam and his wife have hit on a stellar business idea, based in Brussels, they’re selling lost Amazon parcels as a lucky dip in their shops called Pile ou Face, which translates as Heads or Tails.
Our mission at Pile ou Face: transform lost packages into accessible treasures, while working for a more sustainable economy.
– Arnaud Userstam, Founder, Heads or Tails
Shoppers can buy parcels by the kilo, but the twist is that they don’t know what they are buying as they are not allowed to open a parcel until they’ve paid for it! It’s so successful that they are already opening up new stores!
The thing is you never know what you might be buying, some considering themselves lucky walk off with tech – headsets, even smartphones. Others might receive more mundane items from clothing and toothbrushes to pet toys. Some have even ended up with sex toys! If you think of the vast array of goods sold online you might end up with pretty much anything for your €16 per kilo parcels.
80% of the parcels in Pile ou Face shops are from Amazon, and there are a lot of missing parcels – they’re buying them in quantities of 100,000 at a time and even then they keep running out of stock. Consumers are flooding to Pile of Face to try their luck and see if they can snag an absolute bargain.
It really is a gamble, you might hit the jackpot with goods that you can resell (or keep and use yourself) worth 100s of times what you pay for them, or you might lose out and find the contents are worth less than you paid for them. But at €16 per kilo, it’s not a lot to risk, so consumers turn up, give parcels a quick shake and see if they fancy trying their luck or if they want to select a different item, pay up, and then they can discover what they’ve landed.
Pile ou Face website shows the current store locations and opening hours, and you can keep in touch via their Facebook, Instagram and TikTok channels.
