| October 10 – 16, 2022
 Deliveroo announced that it’s putting a slightly different spin on its new darkstore in London, by opening it to shoppers. The new location will serve as a warehouse for grocery delivery, and be open to shoppers to place orders and leave in minutes with their goods.. While this is unique when you look at the property as a “darkstore”, we’d argue that this is now just…a store? Whether you look at a property as a store with ship-from-store warehouse capabilities, or a warehouse, with walk-in-and-shop capabilities, the takeaway is that all retail locations need to be multi-functional to be profitable in today’s marketplace. Need help adding functional dimensions to your properties? Let’s chat.
This week we also heard about a social media network getting into the warehouse space, plans for Thanksgiving shopping (or lack thereof), and how inflation is continuing to impact the upcoming holiday shopping season. Find us over on Twitter or LinkedIn to let us know the hot topics you’re keeping an eye on as we finish out the last quarter of the year.
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Digital Meets Physical
Exclusive Q&A: Simon brings outlet shopping online [Chain Store Age]
Premium mall owner Simon is partnering with e-commerce site Rue Gilt Groupe to offer digital value shopping. Chain Store Age recently spoke with Neel Grover, CEO, Shop Premium Outlets ShopPremiumOutlets.com, about how and why Simon operates the e-commerce platform dedicated to providing an outlet center-type shopping experience online. |
4 in-store technology trends that are shaping 2022 [RetailDive]
Shoppers may have eased their online buying habits to a degree, but brick-and-mortar stores aren’t immune to the longevity of digital transformation. In fact, the store management technology sector saw an increase in funding during Q2 with a 25% quarter-over-quarter bump to $3 billion compared to $2.4 billion in Q1, according to CB Insights. |
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Scoop: TikTok chases Amazon with plans for U.S. fulfillment centers [Axios]
TikTok is planning to build its own product fulfillment centers in the U.S., creating an e-commerce supply chain system that could directly challenge Amazon, as indicated by more than a dozen new job openings posted in the past two weeks to LinkedIn. |
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Micro & Last Mile Fulfillment
Deliveroo tweaks ’dark store’ model to let grocery shoppers in the door [TechCrunch]
Deliveroo is experimenting with expanding its rapid grocery business by opening a new type of ‘dark store’ in Central London. As well as functioning as a mini warehouse, the new New Oxford Street “Deliveroo HOP” outlet functions as a pick up point for shoppers who’ve ordered in Deliveroo’s app .But a bigger difference is that non-app users can also walk into a reception area to make an order for groceries directly in-store. |
Delivery Startup Getir in Advanced Talks to Buy Gorillas [Bloomberg]
Getir, the Istanbul-based delivery startup, is in advanced talks to buy rival Gorillas Technologies GmbH, people familiar with the matter said. The combination would give Getir, which is backed by Mubadala Investment Co. and Sequoia Capital, scale in key European markets including the UK and Germany. Gorillas, which last raised funds at a $3 billion valuation a year ago, has been exploring options after investors became more cautious on the money-losing industry. |
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Amazon ends field tests for delivery bot Scout [RetailDive]
Amazon is ending its field tests of autonomous delivery robot Scout. The company is “reorienting the program” after certain aspects failed to meet customer needs. Scout’s first tests involved making deliveries in a Washington state neighborhood in January 2019. Testing for the cooler-sized, sidewalk-roaming robot later expanded to Atlanta, Georgia; Irvine, California; and Franklin, Tennessee. |
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Restaurants & Ghost Kitchens
Burger King, Popeyes, and Others Pull Out of Major Expansion Plans With This Company [Eat This, Not That]
As far as why these partnerships fizzled, Reef representatives have provided no further clues. Meanwhile, a rep for Restaurant Brands International, the company that owns both Burger King and Popeyes, said: “I can confirm that the pilot project that Burger King and Popeyes were testing with Reef has ended.” |
Foodology’s cloud kitchen concept gains foothold across Latin America [TechCrunch]
Cloud kitchens became popular during the global pandemic as a way for restaurants to reach their communities when people were not going out as much. One of those was Foodology, a Colombia-based cloud kitchen and virtual restaurant company, co-founded by Daniela Izquierdo and Juan Guillermo Azuero in 2019. |
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Grubhub, Starship deploy delivery bots across 5 college campuses [GroceryDive]
Grubhub and Starship Technologies have partnered to provide autonomous food delivery across five U.S. college campuses. More universities will deploy bots later this year. |
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Mall Talk
Inflation, early shopping to slow U.S. online holiday spending – report [Reuters]
U.S. online holiday sales are expected to rise this year at their slowest pace since at least 2015, as shoppers feel the brunt of decades-high inflation and soaring interest rates. Adobe Analytics forecast online sales in November and December to rise 2.5% to $209.7 billion, compared with an 8.6% increase a year ago, as more people also return to in-store shopping and bring forward purchases to as early as October.Nearly half of Gen Z, millennials to rely on buy now, pay later this holiday: report [RetailDive]
As shoppers stretch their holiday budget, a survey found that four in 10 respondents said they plan to pay for their holiday purchases with buy now, pay later services. The survey found that almost half (48%) of Gen Z respondents said they planned to use BNPL services this holiday season, followed by millennials (47%), Gen X (40%) and baby boomers (14%). |
Thanksgiving Day Stores Closing Is Up To 35 Companies So Far [Forbes]
Good Housekeeping surveyed retailers plans for the coming holidays. So far, 35 stores have announced that they will be closed. It includes Walmart and Target but, of courses, their e-commerce sites are open.How the Pandemic Changed Malls [Commercial Property Executive]
The retail sector had its fair share of challenges because of the pandemic, but rebounded in 2021 and fundamentals remained positive this year as well. According to a retail market outlook report by JLL, 78 million square feet of retail space was leased in the second quarter of 2022, the highest number since the fourth quarter of 2017. With 4,432 store openings compared with only 1,954 closings, activity in the sector was strong in the first half of the year. |
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