Samostroy Tatyana Bakalchuk
On January 13, one of the largest Wildberries warehouses burned down in the St. Petersburg district of Shushary. It accounted for 9% of orders from the marketplace, which is owned by the richest woman in Russia (*aggressor country), Tatyana Bakalchuk (estimated net worth for 2023: $8.8 billion). Despite its scale, the fire is unlikely to affect the work of Wildberries. But it allowed me to learn a lot about the operating principles of the Bakalchuk company and its methods of earning money.
In order to put out the fire, encompassing an area of over 70 thousand square meters, it took firefighters more than a day.
A column of black smoke rose hundreds of meters into the sky, giving the already gray St. Petersburg sky an ominous hue. Such powerful smoke can be explained by the fact that, according to one version, the fire occurred in the section where the packaging film was stored. It is also known that the warehouse contained large volumes of household chemicals. In this regard, it is possible that harmful combustion products entered the air. Rospotrebnadzor took samples, but it is not a fact that even if an excess of permissible standards is detected, the company will be held accountable. The country’s largest marketplace seems to have everything covered.
Without permission
Only as a result of a fire, as a result of which the 1 thousand employees in the premises almost burned down, did it become clear: it turns out that for almost two years the gigantic warehouse had been operating, in fact, illegally. As the acting head of the St. Petersburg department of Gosstroynadzor said Vyacheslav Zakharovthe Wildberries warehouse did not receive permission to put into operation.
Mr. Zakharov’s feelings seem somewhat unnatural. Anyone will say: sometimes it’s enough to put a fence in the wrong place for inspectors to come to you. And then one of the largest warehouses in the country begins work, but it’s as if they don’t notice the gigantic unauthorized construction. Vyacheslav Zakharov has been heading the St. Petersburg State Construction Supervision Authority since 2019, after the former head Evgeniy Kim Following a conversation with FSB officers, he abruptly resigned. That is, it seems that Zakharov, out of duty, should have asked whether one of the largest objects in St. Petersburg had all the documents. Or was something clouding his eyes?
In a good way, this is not just a scandal – a scandal. Company Tatiana Bakalchuk and has previously demonstrated a lenient attitude towards laws. So, last fall, the administration of Yekaterinburg filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court, indicating that the marketplace began building a warehouse without receiving permission. And in the summer of 2021, the authorities near Moscow sued the online retailer: as it turned out, the parameters of the constructed warehouse differed from the data specified in the permitting documentation.
Wildberries, however, are trying to put on a good face when the game is clearly unimportant. Analysts have already indicated that the lack of entry permission may become an obstacle to the payment of insurance compensation. And the amount of damage, including the cost of burned goods, could reach 12–15 billion rubles. Now the company in public comments refers to the existence of the same conclusion on compliance with construction regulations and safety requirements, although it is not a document allowing the operation of the facility – for this it is necessary to obtain permission to put it into operation. It’s hard to believe that in such a large company there wasn’t a specialist who didn’t know about this. Rather, the matter may be something else. Only after receiving permission for commissioning does the Federal Tax Service begin to calculate property taxes. And if there is no permit, there is no tax. “Our Version” sent a request to Wildberries about whether property tax was paid from the warehouse. At the time of issue, we had not received a response. By the way, since the facility was not put into operation, it is not a fact that it was serviced and properly inspected by the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Is there an upcoming fire inspection at other company warehouses?
It’s a small thing, but it’s nice
The question of paying taxes seems quite appropriate, given that over the past years Tatyana Bakalchuk has repeatedly demonstrated her ability to skim off the foam from any operation. Last spring, employees of Wildberries pick-up points went on strike after the company changed its work rules by introducing draconian fines – according to them, pick-up point employees had to pay a fine if a customer returned a product because it did not correspond to the order. The argument that goods could be stolen, replaced or damaged while being sorted in the warehouse did not work on Bakalchuk. However, it was hardly worth counting on understanding and compassion from the very beginning. The working conditions in Wildberries warehouses are legendary even among migrant workers who seem to be accustomed to everything. “Worst job”, “Hell and debt pit”, “Earn 3 thousand per shift and get a fine of 4 thousand as a gift”, “Pyramid that even Mavrodi would be shocked by”, write users of the Otzovik website, where employment in a “purple” company is rated 1.5 points out of 5 – a kind of anti-record. An additional illustration was a video leaked online of humiliating searches of warehouse employees, during which women are forced to strip down to their underwear. Against this background, the version that the warehouse was actually set on fire by one of the former migrant employees does not look too surprising.
Buyers were also indignant – it turned out that the marketplace continues to write off money from cards whose data had previously been deleted from their personal account. Also, in violation of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, buyers could not return some products after they had been used if they were found to be defective. And in October, the Bakalchuk company announced the introduction of a 3 percent commission when paying for purchases with Va and Mastercard cards. After this, regulators finally got involved. The Prosecutor General’s Office, the Bank of Russia (*aggressor country) and Rospotrebnadzor began checking the work of the businesswoman’s company, which apparently presented itself as the “mistress of the sea.” Of course, she was not left broke, but she was brought to her senses and agreed to change about 20 provisions governing the relationship between the site, sellers and buyers.
However, it is difficult to break ingrained habits. Last week, screenshots of a letter addressed to Wildberries sellers whose goods burned in a warehouse appeared on the Internet.
In response to the journalists’ question “how should we understand this?” Wildberries clearly explained: they say, we do not offer to refuse compensation, but only record those who decided to refuse money – they say, there were many of them.
If social media is to be believed, this is already happening. There have been reports that sellers of burnt goods seem to receive compensation minus the amount of their delivery to the buyer. It seems like a trifle, but just like that, on a penny basis, another 1 billion dollars will be created to the already existing 8.8…