From the appetizing smells and disciplined, busy cooks, you'd think it was the kitchen of a bustling restaurant, filled with diners. But with no tables to reserve, no serving staff, and just a discreet entrance, where Uber Eats and Deliveroo drivers (the only clientele this kitchen serves) pick up orders, this is a “dark kitchen,” bringing together chefs and their wares with online search and food-delivery platforms—businesses based on software, data, and proprietary networks of drivers. These technological platforms make delivery-only restaurants more viable, opening opportunities for entrepreneurs who identify neighborhoods lacking, say, a good brick-and-mortar Thai eatery and meeting the demand for such food. The dark kitchen is an example of a tangible institution (the restaurant) adapting to an increasingly intangible economy—and it's emblematic of the most important economic shift of our time.
The emerging economy is often described as technological, an economy based on the Internet or Big Data or whatever is on Wired's cover this month. But it's really about a deeper change: a long-term shift in the nature of capital, from physical assets to intangible ones. Like all major economic transitions, the shift is painful and disorienting, in part because it is unevenly distributed. While some companies, regions, and groups are deeply involved with the new forms of production, many others are not, and the left-behind aren't just the disadvantaged populations of declining areas (though they're certainly struggling) but also some of the world's wealthiest firms.
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