A Root Stew from the Kitchen of Sarah Wiener

Platform urbanism in a pandemic: Dark stores, ghost kitchens, and the logistical-urban frontier

“…And while several restaurant chains have experimented with converting their own kitchens (cf. Wiener, 2020 ), the more common model appears to be independent kitchens renting out space to “virtual” vendors. In fact, nearly every large third-party delivery platform (Deliveroo, UberEats, Doordash) has opened its own ghost kitchen, leasing out industrial kitchen space to restaurant “partners,” consulting on branding and digital marketing ( Friedlander, 2021 ), and sweetening the deal with exclusive analytics (e.g., Bell, 2019 ; Romeo, 2019 ).…”

“…I mean this both in the sense that the spaces are configured according to the infrastructural demands of fulfillment as the platform-commodity, and that the business models cognize space through the discourse of software and platform economics. Like software, dark stores and ghost kitchens are “re-configurable” ( Wiener, 2020 ). They can be “programmed” according to transaction data collected by the online platform ( Helmond, 2015 ; McKelvey, 2011 )—dark stores stock inventory according to purchase histories and spatial analytics, for example, while “virtual” restaurants rebrand to fit local trends or open and close seasonally to fill “cuisine gaps” spotted in the data ( Blatherwick, 2020 ; Jeffries, 2020 ; Wiener, 2020 ).…”

“…Like software, dark stores and ghost kitchens are “re-configurable” ( Wiener, 2020 ). They can be “programmed” according to transaction data collected by the online platform ( Helmond, 2015 ; McKelvey, 2011 )—dark stores stock inventory according to purchase histories and spatial analytics, for example, while “virtual” restaurants rebrand to fit local trends or open and close seasonally to fill “cuisine gaps” spotted in the data ( Blatherwick, 2020 ; Jeffries, 2020 ; Wiener, 2020 ). To a certain extent, such flexibility harkens to the esthetic logics of “pop-up urbanism.” Going dark “valorises places which are quick to construct, relocate and remove, organis space-time in a way that assures plasticity in the future ( Harris, 2015 : 593).…”

“…“Apple uses connectivity as a platform; we use proximity as a platform. We allow third-party applications to stand on this proximity platform and get closer to consumers” ( Wiener, 2020 ). What they mean by “proximity platform,” however, is a parking lot , of which REEF controls more than 10,000 after having acquired the two largest parking operators in North America with capital from Softbank’s Vision Fund and Dubai’s sovereign-wealth fund ( Shieber, 2020 ).…”

“…While the structures housing REEF’s “logistics hubs” and “micro-kitchens” may today look like ordinary trailers, executives insist that they are only prototypes, “a proof of concept for other sorts of ‘applications’ that might make sense in some later, future time” ( Wiener, 2020 ). What those future applications will be is unclear, but promotional imagery for REEF’s future mobile kitchens invokes the flexible esthetics of pop-up culture and “tactical urbanism” ( Mould, 2014 ).…”