When retailers refer to their dark stores, they don’t mean turning out the lights in the stores themselves. Rather, they simply are not available to consumer shoppers. In an initiative begun before the COVID-19 pandemic but clearly reinforced by it, several retailers seeking to achieve dominance in grocery ecommerce have built or transformed stores to facilitate delivery operations, quickly and efficiently.

In the dark stores, long aisles and coolers still stock popular and frequently purchased food and household items. But there are no prepared food stations. Nor are there any conventional consumers. Rather, the doors are open only to delivery drivers, who gain ready access to the products they need to pick and pack. The designs of dedicated dark stores facilitate their efforts, rather than devoting space to promotional or emotionally appealing displays. Furthermore, without unhurried shoppers to get in their way, the delivery service providers can get in and out more quickly, increasing the efficiency of their operations.

Although a few stores opened expressly with this design, the pandemic also rushed the experiment along. In response to the massive increase in demand that it experienced, Amazon converted six Whole Foods stores to enable dark operations, allowing drivers working for it to get the requested items to shoppers on lockdown. Although it has returned four of those stores to regular operations, the virus-imposed experiment highlighted the possibilities of this distribution method.

Other stores also experimented with the idea, though in more limited form. For example, a few stores stayed open to regular consumers until midday, then became dark stores in the afternoon and evening hours. If demand for grocery delivery options continue to grow, as many retailers predict it will, more stores might convert to partial dark operations too.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is a “dark store”?
2. What are the benefits of dark stores for online grocery retailing?
3. Will retailers continue using dark stores after the pandemic?

Source: Matthew Stern, “Is Whole Foods’ E-Grocery Business Headed Down a Dark Path?” Retail Wire, September 3, 2020; Kelly Tyko, “Whole Foods Without Shoppers: Amazon Trying out ‘Dark Store’ as Part of Vision for Future of Online Grocery Shopping,” USA Today, September 1, 2020