“The Amazon warehouse within my store”: e-commerce adoption and conflicted industrialization in Southern California’s grocery industry
2026-07-27
The growth of grocery e-commerce has commodified tasks previously done by customers. Scholars have studied the labor conditions of new e-commerce jobs in Amazon warehouses, dark kitchens, and delivery platforms. Yet little is known about how these technologies are impacting working conditions in grocery stores, where consumers still shop alongside employees. This article uses a case study of two grocers to understand how e-commerce is shaping working conditions and what factors impact the implementation of technology in the workplace. I first find that grocery store employees are experiencing the industrialization of work, where work can be rationalized and routinized, and high labor costs reduced accordingly. Second, this industrialization creates conflict in the use of space, time, and the meaning of work. Third, contradictory factors, including high costs, competition, and stalled automation shape the adoption of e-commerce. I reflect on how organizational context and imagined futures impact technological adoption and working conditions.