Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Narratives fundamentally work on an emotional level. There are no good or bad emotions. They are what they are, as are narratives. One story may be more nuanced, better told, and better accepted than another. But that doesn’t mean the latter is irrelevant. 

Take the spin around ‘dark stores’, which are essentially warehouses built by e-commerce firms to facilitate fast deliveries. 

In India, the narrative is a largely positive one, centred around how they are making deliveries faster and more efficient. But in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, another narrative is gaining ground. 

One that isn’t as hunky-dory as the one in India. 

Let’s unpack. 

The two ways of seeing dark stores and fast deliveries

Let me ask you a question to kick things off. 

Which do you think should come first? Community or business? 

Much of the discourse around fast deliveries in India has revolved around the latter. While there was some backlash against Zomato, Zepto, and other such firms when they first announced 10-minute delivery, it seems Indians have now warmed up to the idea of fast deliveries. 

Enter dark stores. 

Such deliveries are only possible once e-commerce and delivery firms build ‘stores’ (or warehouses) in neighbourhoods where people who want these items live. A straightforward solution to a basic problem that e-commerce wants to solve. 

In 2018, for instance, The Ken wrote about how Walmart is focussing on dark stores and dark warehousing to drive Flipkart’s growth. And why such stores were becoming popular.

By 2020, the concept had become very popular among all kinds of delivery startups; cloud kitchens in the food delivery space are a great example of this.