Dark stores pursue workers

Quick commerce funding boom has sparked breakneck expansion across hundreds of towns

- Mansi Verma & Sowmya Ramasubramanian

Dark stores are scrambling for workers to pick, pack and load a range of goods, as a quick commerce funding boom sparks breakneck expansion across hundreds of India's towns and cities.

Open positions for so-called under-the-roof workers have shot up, industry specialists said, as companies aggressively expand their networks to realize growth ambitions.

Not surprisingly, attrition has soared.

Zomato plans to double Blinkit's dark stores from 1,007 to 2,000 by year-end, while Swiggy Instamart aims to increase its count from 523 in March 2024 to over 1,046 by March 2025.

Zepto is targeting 1,200 dark stores by March 2025, up from 700-750 in December, Mint has earlier reported.

"Churn among warehouse workers and delivery partners will increase as quick commerce firms go full throttle to keep up with amplifying competition.

We may also see platforms bump up salaries and incentives to keep workers happy for longer," said Madhav Krishna, founder and chief executive of Vahan.ai, a blue-collar recruitment platform backed by Y Combinator.

Frontline workers, including store staff and delivery partners, are critical for grocery and food delivery operations as the business model hinges on speed and easy staff availability.

To support this growth, Zepto raised over $1.3 billion last year, and Zomato ₹8,500 crore for its quick commerce arm Blinkit.