Dark stores are physical stores only used for online shopping. I remember hearing about "dark kitchens" which are restaurants doing deliveries, but not accessible/visible from the outside.

Are those the same as ghost kitchens?

Yeah same concept basically. Take over a strip mall space, paper over the windows, set up the inside in a way that's optimized for delivery only.

There's some interesting reporting on the various optimizations like all the isle being half width and one way to save floor space, or they don't put like items together so all the different ketchup brands (for example) are distrusted throughout the store so if it tells a picker to go to isle 5 shelf W and get heinz ketchup, there won't be any other similar items/brands near the heinz ketchup to confuse the picker with. They also arrange the stores in roughly descending weight so that heavy things go in first and light/fragile at the end.

Interesting, I saw a wendy's "Food truck" doing that near me. I suspect it was for delivery only, not even takeout.

It's the same concept yes. A grocery "store" (localized warehouse) accessible only to delivery services.

Small grocery warehouses used by Instant delivery companies. From this post[1] by Tanay J

A. Dark Stores / Fulfillment Centers Instant-Delivery Apps operate their own dark stores / fulfillment centers, typically one per neighborhood they operate in. Since these are not meant for consumers, space can be used more efficiently and typically the cost to operate these (at scale) as a percent of revenue is lower than rent space for grocery stores.

https://tanay.substack.com/p/understanding-the-instant-deliv...

No shopping floor, just a warehouse. You order online.

This is interesting because https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumers_Distributing went bankrupt and afaik never came back. Sometimes I wonder if capitalism has any memory.

I believe a grocery store that only serves deliveries. You can’t actually go and buy things in person.

A warehouse.

Not necessarily. Some dark stores near me (city center) have about the same layout as physical stores, but more cramped - delivery people need to pick the items from shelves.

Sells only dark matter food.