Darkstore CEO and founder Lee Hnetinka
Hnetinka was interviewed this morning on CNBC. I wonder if Darkstore is “Amazon” 20 years ago, ridiculed as a joke and not taken seriously? Amazon put ‘brick and mortar’ on life support, Darkstore might be the stake through the heart.
Darkstore as I understand it simply provides urban warehousing and ‘last mile’ delivery for online retail partners. They determine what their most popular consumer items are (shoes, makeup, consumer electronics), and Darkstore warehouses it and provides 2 – 3 hour delivery. Not 2 – 3 day ala Amazon Prime, 2 – 3 hour.
Absent teleportation, that’s pretty quick. Hnetinka pointed out that Amazon builds their fulfillment centers in rural areas, already losing transportation time to Darkstore’s urban facilities. But that’s all setup, and not the main point of my post.
Like Amazon and others, what they are all looking towards is automation, AI, drones and contract labor (like Uber, Deliv, TForce, Final Mile). And of course illegals. Its part of a longtime trend American business has had to get people to Buy! Buy! Buy! – but they don’t actually want to provide the jobs so that people have the money to buy their stuff.
Once you’ve screwed everybody out of a job, oh you’ve “brought down costs” alright, you just don’t have any customers left.
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