Key:dark_store
 dark_store
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| Description |
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| A location, not open to public shopping directly onsite, which supports online shopping services as a warehouse and base of operations for its delivery personnel. |
| Group: shops |
| Used on these elements |
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| Useful combination |
| Status: undefined |
| Tools for this tag |
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Use dark_store=* to mark the location of a "dark store," not open to the public for onsite retail shopping, but a place that acts as a warehouse for goods to be stored for delivery to consumers who place online orders. An implied tag with this key is delivery=only (delivery=yes): the goods are available by delivery only. However, there are dark stores which allow pick-up of a placed order, so for these exceptions (contradictions?), additionally tag the dark store with delivery=yes + pickup=yes.
In reality there’s a whole spectrum of places between “no, retail customers are not allowed on the premises” (and hence, it's a dark store) and “yes, regular shoppers are welcome.” Lots of “normal” shops are encouraging a “Click and Collect” model (in the UK supermarkets, catalogue shops, electronics etc. have all gone this way). At what point does something become a “dark store”? At the point when no retail customers at all are served on-premises and there’s a direct-to-customer delivery operation that isn’t simply mail order. An Argos wouldn’t count (both online and in-person purchases are supported), nor would a supermarket click and collect. Nor would something like this sports shop where an initial online purchase is required, but in-person collection from the warehouse is allowed. Nor is a dark store this online-only retailer, rather, this is distinctly a mail order operation that presumably has a warehouse (or more) somewhere.
Values of dark_store=*
Typical values might be "grocery" or "yes" (if no greater specificity is known) and might draw from values of shop=*, but without the in-person experience of onsite "shopping," rather one via website or shopping app, then delivery.
Supplementary tags for dark_store=*
None (yet). The most direct method is to assign as value what "goods" the dark_store distributes / delivers, such as "grocery." Although the value "yes" could be used when no particular categorization (from values of shop=*) is known or would best fit.
Community consensus
See this official forum topic.
See also
- 'shop', as a source for values of dark_store=*; tagging begins with dark_store=grocery
- 'Tag:shop=outpost' (not necessarily "delivery only" but rather "pickup only")
- 'Tag:company=logistics', as the concept of "logistics" might have some overlap with a dark store
- 'Tag:amenity=warehouse', a possible tagging for what OSM before 2023.07 specifically called a dark_store=* (some amenity=warehouses might become dark_store=*)