Blinkit to open gourmet dark stores in select location in top 8 cities

Blinkit will be launching gourmet dark stores in the top eight cities in select locations to ride on the premiumisation wave that is being witnessed across categories in urban regions. Eternal, which owns Blinkit, has invested nearly ₹3,000 crore over the past four years to build its network of dark stores and said that it will continue to invest to support expansion.

In a letter to shareholders for Q1 FY27, Albinder Singh Dhindsa, Group CEO, Eternal said, “Going forward, premiumisation through launch of ‘gourmet’ stores in select locations in top eight cities will also contribute to assortment expansion on the platform. These gourmet stores offer our customers the ability to buy curated premium brands across categories.”

“We continue to focus our efforts on our three pillars of long-term growth — assortment expansion, geographical expansion, and demand densification. This quarter, we continued to make progress on assortment expansion in the top eight cities and geographic expansion in the next 30,” he added.

Quick-commerce business’ net order value grew 86 per cent year-on-year to ₹17,132 crore in Q1 FY27. The company added 200 net new dark stores taking the total count to 2,443 stores.

On growing competitive intensity in the quick-commerce space, Dhindsa said that while competitive intensity remains high, it has become more predictable. “We are the only player simultaneously investing in assortment depth, geographic expansion, and supply chain infrastructure while competitors generally remain focused primarily on pricing,” he noted.