As part of the GoDirect’s operating model called the dark store or the micro-fulfilment model, we are becoming a custodian of this food that’s getting distributed in Canada. This model has been tried and tested by multiple successful startups across the world like BlinkIt, Zepto etc. However, this model is new to Canada which has relied on physical retail for decades, and pretty efficiently so. However, in the past 5 years, physical retail has suffered a few setbacks like shutting down of regional supermarket chains, Covid19, rising inflation, and more. We believe that dark store model has the potential to alleviate the grocery problems of at least 10mn Canadian and pave way for happy memories. The dark store model has been a paradigm shift for the geographies it has been implemented due to its 3 main benefits/advantages:

1) Availability 📦: a dark store is never planned singular, that’s not how the model works. It’s a network of dark stores in a population cluster say a city, a region, a province and eventually a country. What this ensures is that the packaged goods are scattered across multiple supply points strategically located so that they can be regularly replenished and at the same time, they can distribute the goods easily to the end consumers. Think of this as a lean, agile, efficient, technologically run, no customer walk-in supermarket with a fleet of local drivers/runners who go to consumers house rather than calling consumers to the center.  This leads to predictability, availability, debottlenecking, time and labor savings and a self-sufficient local economy.

2) Dollar Savings💰: a dark store model creates dollar savings at multiple fronts. One it leads to a highly curated product portfolio depending upon the customer base, their ethnicities, their food preferences and their delivery needs. Second, it leads to rental savings as dark stores don’t need high valued real estate. Third, it leads to labor savings as dark stores don’t need labor all the time for product supervision and customer service. Lastly, it leads to fuel savings as a bunch of orders are consolidated in one delivery run.

3) Convenience/Comfort🏡: the last and perhaps the most importance aspect about dark stores is the convenience they provide to residents who are relieve of their worry of stepping out of the house multiple times in a week, which gives them opportunity to focus on work, on personal life, leisure ultimately increasing the happiness quotient of the group.