Who Uses Dark Stores? Real-World Examples Across Retail, Grocery, and Logistics

Overview

Dark stores are retail or warehouse locations dedicated exclusively to online order fulfillment rather than walk-in retail. They have become a core tool for many organizations that need speed, inventory control, and efficient last-mile delivery. This article explains who uses dark stores, why they use them, and provides concrete examples across sectors and geographies.

Primary users of dark stores

• Quick-commerce and rapid delivery platforms: Companies that promise deliveries within minutes or under an hour use dark stores because the model places inventory close to dense customer populations. These operators design compact, high-turnover facilities optimized for picking and packing small customer orders.
• Supermarket and grocery chains: Traditional retailers use dark stores to separate e-commerce fulfillment from the customer-facing shopping experience. This helps maintain in-store service levels while increasing online capacity and speed.
• Large e-commerce retailers and marketplaces: Online-first retailers and marketplaces may operate dark stores as urban micro-fulfillment centers to reduce delivery times and shipping costs for high-frequency, perishable, or time-sensitive items.
• Third-party logistics (3PL) providers: Logistics companies run dark stores as a service for multiple retail clients, offering shared infrastructure for small-batch, high-frequency orders.
• Specialty retailers and vertical e-commerce brands: Businesses selling high-turn products such as personal care, snacks, electronics accessories, or pharmaceuticals use dark stores to guarantee fast delivery and maintain strict inventory control.
• Restaurants and meal-delivery services (adjacent model): While restaurants more commonly use ghost kitchens to prepare food, some meal delivery businesses use dark store-like facilities to stock and dispatch packaged groceries, meal kits, or beverages—blurring the line between grocery dark stores and food preparation hubs.

Why these users adopt dark stores

• Speed and proximity: Locating inventory near urban customers shortens delivery windows and lowers last-mile costs.
• Operational efficiency: Dedicated fulfillment environments eliminate the constraints of serving in-store customers, enabling faster picking flows, better slotting, and technology optimized for e-commerce.
• Inventory accuracy and assortment control: Dark stores allow precise SKU selection and stocking strategies tailored to online demand, including perishables and promotional ranges.
• Cost control: Higher labor productivity per square meter for picking, combined with optimized delivery routes, can reduce unit fulfillment cost versus using traditional stores for the same orders.

Concrete examples

• Gopuff (United States): Gopuff is a quick-commerce company that operates hundreds of micro-fulfillment dark stores across urban areas in the U.S. It stocks everyday goods—snacks, beverages, household items—and offers delivery in minutes through its own courier network. Gopuff’s dark stores are purpose-designed for rapid picking and dispatch.
• Gorillas (Germany and Europe): Gorillas built its brand on extremely fast grocery delivery from compact dark stores positioned in dense neighborhoods. Their facilities emphasize speed, with small teams picking items for delivery bikes and scooters.
• Getir (Turkey, Europe, U.S.): Another rapid grocery player, Getir operates micro-fulfillment dark stores to enable deliveries in 10–30 minutes, focusing on small-format inventory assortments and extremely high order throughput per location.
• Carrefour (France and international): Carrefour has experimented with and deployed dark stores to support its e-commerce grocery operations in major cities. These facilities allow Carrefour to increase online capacity without disrupting the in-store shopping experience.
• Walmart & Kroger (United States): Large supermarket chains such as Walmart and Kroger have invested in micro-fulfillment centers and dark-store concepts. Kroger’s partnership with Ocado created automated customer fulfillment centers, while Walmart uses dedicated fulfillment nodes and store-to-door models to speed e-commerce deliveries.
• Amazon (Global): Amazon uses a range of fulfillment formats; for urban grocery delivery it operates Amazon Fresh and smaller fulfillment points that function similarly to dark stores, keeping inventory close to customers for same-day delivery.
• JOKR and Flink (Latin America and Europe): Start-ups like JOKR and Flink follow the dark store model for ultra-fast delivery in multiple markets, combining a curated SKU list with strategically placed micro-fulfillment sites.
• Third-party operators and franchise models: Several logistics providers and franchisees run dark stores on behalf of multiple retailers or local brands. This shared model reduces capital expenditure for smaller retailers that still need fast e-commerce fulfillment.

Use-case examples by sector

• Urban grocery delivery: High-density neighborhoods with heavy demand for convenience items benefit most from dark stores, where couriers or delivery fleets can quickly service many orders.
• Pharmacy and healthcare: Fast delivery of over-the-counter medicines and personal care can be achieved from dark stores that maintain controlled inventories and comply with regulatory storage requirements.
• Event or seasonal promotions: Retailers use dark stores to stage promotional stock close to demand centers, enabling rapid roll-out and replenishment during peak periods.

Practical considerations and challenges

While many companies gain speed and efficiency from dark stores, implementation requires careful planning: real estate selection must balance proximity with cost; inventory assortment must reflect hyper-local demand; workforce practices must support high-pace picking; and visibility systems must integrate with last-mile fleets. Regulatory and zoning rules can also affect where dark stores may operate in urban neighborhoods.

Conclusion



Dark stores are now used by a spectrum of businesses—from pure-play rapid-delivery start-ups to established supermarket chains and 3PLs—to meet growing consumer demand for fast, reliable online fulfillment. Real-world examples like Gopuff, Gorillas, Carrefour, Walmart, and Amazon illustrate how the model can be adapted across markets and scales: the common aim is the same—place inventory closer to customers and design operations specifically for e-commerce speed and efficiency.