Dark shop — spring up in former butchers, convenience stores, gyms, and mattress retailers — are taking up space that was once designed to be open to the public. The shift from remote warehouses to accessible retail stores has city planners of interest. Because dark shops sit at the confusing intersection of being technically occupied, yet functionally empty, they run the risk of suffering the worst effects that vacant real estate can have. may cause harm to the community.
The scary thing is that dark shops, like empty ones, can puncture a hole in a neighborhood’s social scene. Empty storefronts are bad for cities. When more of them are in close proximity, they mean fewer people will walk down the street and fewer connections between neighbors will occur. “Getting people out on the street increases public safety, as more people see what’s happening,” said Noel Hidalgo, chief executive officer of BetaNYC. “That level of social interaction makes cities safer and makes places safer.” Accordingly, the neighboring areas have many vacant facades see increased crime rates, fire risks and rodent activity.
Alex Bitterman, professor of architecture and design at Alfred State College, who wrote a paper on dark shops, says he is also paying attention to where, exactly, these dark shops are springing up. While he hasn’t seen a rigorous statistical study, he says many grocers are “going into the dark” – selling themselves to in-store shoppers to become delivery hubs – “appears to disproportionately affect people with lower incomes than neighborhoods.” (This observation applies more to existing grocers that are underperforming than to startups. Fast delivery business is moving in.)
Bitterman added: “Replacing a public-facing grocery store, especially in low-income areas, with a delivery-only store can exacerbate food access problems. People who pay for groceries with food stamps often can’t order online, not to mention they may not have smartphones or can’t afford the delivery fees.
In addition, dark shops can also crowd out core businesses in the vicinity, driving up rents on small retail spaces, such as a snack shop. may have been occupied. Right now, bodega owners in New York – whose businesses are most directly threatened by fast-delivery companies – are alarm sound. They argue that tech companies will replace corner stores, which double as thriving community centers, with personal apps.
In this sense, the bodega or corner shop is more than just a place to buy coffee. “That’s where you can have a morning chat,” says Hidalgo. “In the bodegas that I go into, and the grocery stores and the delis, you run into your neighbors and you have a sense of community with someone working behind the counter.” Stores provide people with places to walk, meet friends, and escape a downpour. Without them, “the degree of spontaneity that occurs with human contact would be erased,” he said.
The final concern centers on how dark shops, with their constant delivery status, will change pedestrian and car traffic in tight city landscapes. When dark shops move into a city, “suddenly you don’t have people going in and out who normally go to the shops, but you have a lot of bicycles, maybe some trucks and vans. store, and you’ve changed Lisa Nisenson, a city planner who works on mobility issues at design firm WGI, says a poorly placed dark store can mean were pedestrians jostling for space on the sidewalk with dozens of delivery drivers rushing to meet the rigid delivery windows.
