Dark Store Expansion: Ultrafast Logistics for Q-Commerce

[...]Gorillas in Germany has doubled its range of fruit and vegetables from 50 to 100 items, while signing numerous partnerships with butchers, fishmongers, cheese dairies, breweries and bakeries operating near its dark stores, in order to offer up to 30% of items from small shops or local brands. Is this the main limitation of the dark store model? A Windfall Effect Due to the Health Crisis The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 led many countries to resort to lockdown of populations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while hospital capacity to accommodate patients in respiratory distress was too limited (Paché, 2021). [...]dark (or "ghost") kitchens, food preparation centers that are not attached to a physical restaurant, have multiplied in Europe to replace the food outlets closed during the successive lockdowns. The secret of q-commerce consists in knowing how to minimize the time that elapses between the purchase of a product online and its availability, in other words, knowing how to win the battle of the deadline, including sacrificing the working conditions of the deliverers, even if this means taking major risks in terms of brand reputation (Ariker, 2021).

Examining the Roots of Logistical Failures: Four Illustrations From the World of Retailing

The world of retailing has undergone deep changes over the last twenty years in terms of the organization of marketing channels. Two models are today characterized by a strong dynamism: the brick & click model and the pure player model. An important literature focuses on the logistical dimensions associated with these two models, indicating that the performance of the physical distribution service is the key to success. This article takes a different point of view by exploring logistical failures from four well-known illustrations in the retailing world that could help to better understand the supply chain issues for brick & click retailers and pure player retailers.

Unloved but Indispensable Logistics: How to Improve Its Image?

[...]people should appreciate the role and the value of logistics. To supply stores, pick-up points and consumers' homes, it relies on unsightly warehouses that look like 'shoeboxes' that local authorities prefer to see set up elsewhere than on their territory (Yuan, 2018), by adopting the famous "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) policy (Cidell, 2011). Since the 2010s, an even more radical criticism has emerged: logistics is above all at the exclusive service of a frantic policy of globalization (Hess, 2010). [...]logistics came to the rescue of public health systems that treat hospitals like hotels, with strictly financial objectives (Hernandez, 2020), including reducing bed capacities for years. [...]for several years, until it was dismantled in October 2016, an association called ĽAuberge des Migrants delivered clothing and food to the 7,000 migrants grouped together in a wild shantytown called "the Calais jungle" in northern France (Trepanier, 2016), waiting to be able to cross the Channel one day and live in the UK.

BÂTIR À LA VITESSE GRAND V, UNE SOLUTION RISQUÉE ?

Frappés de plein fouet par la pandémie de COVID-19, plusieurs gouvernements ont pris des décisions pour soutenir l’économie. Au Québec, le projet de loi 66 adopté en décembre 2020 met l’accent sur un programme ambitieux de grands projets d’infrastructures, notamment pour en accélérer l’exécution et pour sauver les emplois. Cependant, a-t-on vraiment pris conscience des contraintes temporelles inhérentes à de tels projets?Alternate abstract:Hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, several governments have taken decisions to support the economy. In Quebec, Bill 66, passed in December 2020, focuses on an ambitious program of major infrastructure projects, particularly to accelerate implementation and save jobs. However, have we really become aware of the time constraints inherent in such projects?

Can Crowd Logistics Overcome the Coronavirus Crisis?

The origin can be attributed to a twofold cause: (1) on the one hand, more or less drastic lockdown measures of populations in their homes, to prevent the spread of the pandemic from generating an uncontrollable flow of patients in respiratory distress to hospitals;and (2) on the other hand, a profound disorganization of global supply chains, paralyzed by failing international supplies. [...]it is suggested that the coronavirus crisis may undermine the business model given the control over social contacts in the absence of a vaccine. Crowd logistics is based on a business model initiated by a service company that seeks to capture the dormant (or inactivated) logistical resources of a group of individuals to ensure the delivery of parcels, food or prepared meals, including flow and storage of goods and materials and information (Mladenow et al., 2016) (see Table 1). [...]a host of "amateur" logistician, as is sometimes summarized (Schenk and Guittard, 2011), available to meet the needs of user companies that are too happy to do without expensive "professional" logistician, i.e., whose job is precisely focused on delivery.

Logistics Strategy as a Weapon for Territorial Conquest: The Obor Initiative Example

With the launching of its OBOR (One Belt, One Road) initiative since 2013, China has chosen to invest in massive logistical infrastructures with the aim of asserting its economic power and becoming the world’s leading power by 2049. Already at the heart of many global value chains, as the coronavirus crisis of 2020 has shown, China is going to give itself the means to sell its products on a large scale. The research note offers a socio-political reading of the logistical stakes of the OBOR initiative, indicating that economic balances are likely to be profoundly disrupted. The case of the Maghreb countries, which have long been in Europe’s area of influence, is particularly evoked to illustrate how the logistics strategy can be analyzed as a weapon for territorial conquest.