Platform urbanism in a pandemic: Dark stores, ghost kitchens, and the logistical-urban frontier

As demand for e-commerce surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, investors began pouring billions into start-ups promising to accelerate digitization and automation in small-margin, winner-take-all sectors, such as retail, grocery, and dining. I examine two business models that feature prominently in this swell of financial optimism: dark stores and ghost kitchens. Both sacrifice consumer-facing real estate to create logistical spaces for online order fulfillment, and both are predicted to become permanent fixtures of the post-pandemic economic landscape. However, few have commented on the consequences of this future-in-the-making or who is likely to suffer them. The essay therefore anticipates how going dark may impact consumers, workers, and urban geographies. I argue that going dark represents a new threshold in the spatial materialities and financial imaginary of platform urbanism, what I call the logistical-urban frontier. I theorize how this frontier threatens historically disenfranchised urban communities, and I conclude the essay with a reflection on the conflicted temporalities of logistical speculation.

Automated summary

With the surge in e-commerce demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, investors have started pouring billions into start-ups that promise to accelerate digitization and automation in low-profit, winner-take-all sectors like retail, grocery, and dining. This article examines two business models that have gained prominence during this time: dark stores and ghost kitchens. Both models sacrifice consumer-facing real estate in order to create logistical spaces for fulfilling online orders, and both are predicted to become permanent fixtures in the post-pandemic economic landscape. However, the potential consequences of this future and who is likely to be impacted have received little attention. The author anticipates the impact on consumers, workers, and urban geographies as a result of this shift towards this logistical-urban frontier.