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Business-to-consumer e-commerce results in deliveries to consumers. Before evaluating the impact on urban networks, it is necessary to describe and understand the underlying logistics. Certain sectors, e.g. food products, require specific solutions.

Distribution systems are presented as an alternative to private shopping trips. However, the costs of order handling (order-picking, packaging) and home deliveries are still high and not always covered by the price paid by the consumer. On the whole, the profitability of on-line retailing is uncertain and the number of clients limited.

With the holistic approaches of Industry 4.0, products, services, standards, and application techniques have been improved. This digitalization era has not only impacted the production and service dynamics, but also added advanced dimensions to logistics and supply chain management. According to the current world standards, consumer behavior makes the logistics and supply chain processes more challenging. Especially during the COVID-19 outbreak, logistics and supply chain operations became more crucial for the firms, as most consumers have tended toward online shopping while they are in lockdown. Therefore, the competitive environment today enables firms to adapt the technologies and approaches of Logistics 4.0 and smart/digital supply chain, as they must respond to consumers' demands quickly. Moreover, firms need to have strong relations with their supply chain partners via these technologies. The technologies such as the Internet of Things (IOT), cyber-physical system, Big Data, and cloud computing help to change the fundamentals of logistics and supply chain and improve processes for all industries. This study aims to analyze the transformation of traditional logistics and supply chain activities into Logistics 4.0 and smart/digital supply chain. Primarily, we hope to analyze the existing studies by investigating the concept of Logistics 4.0 within Industry 4.0 dynamics. As firms develop their logistics operations, their supply chain processes will be shaped by the technologies and applications, and this situation also leads us to find out the importance of smart or digital supply chain operations. Discussing the potentials of smart or digital supply chain also lets us to reveal how companies handle their logistics operations during the COVID-19 period.

This chapter explores the potential economic advantages and disadvantages of reusable plastic containers (RPCs) in the transport of fresh produce from growers to retail stores. The empirical research linking packaging to quantifiable economic and social benefits is reviewed. This study answers the question – what are the economic and social impacts of increased standardization of bulk packaging in the North American fresh produce supply chains? Implications for the potential use of RPCs and its impact on sustainability are explored.

The chapter describes data from grocery retailers who have implemented both one-way and reusable plastic containers for fresh produce distribution. A Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TD-ABC) analysis was conducted to capture and evaluate process times and product damage associated with the typical deployment of bulk containers in the grocery retailers’ distribution centers (DC), retail stores, and asset recovery centers of the supply chain. Economic measures were implemented and together with the social dimensions provided insights about sustainability-based implications.

Fresh produce shipments using the RPC technology had significantly less waste and damage representing potential social and economic benefits. The empirical findings included results about the economic impact of RPCs on the sustainability level of a typical supply chain for fresh food products.

The quantification of the economic and potential social sustainability for the explored packaging types constitutes an important contribution. Much of the previous research did not contain comprehensive assessments. The impact of technological change – the introduction and use of RPC in packaging – is examined. In addition, the supply chain scope for this research included most of the major activities that involve the packaging of fresh produce commodities in its practical dynamics.

Purpose: This chapter focuses on the relations between aging and the perception about the families’ quality of life in a medium-sized Portuguese city. Departing from the descriptions of individuals living with at least one child under 14 years of age, particular emphasis is put on how young adults perceive and incorporate into their speeches the presence and role of non-cohabiting elderly, namely their parents and in-laws, as an expression of the quality of life they experience.

Design/methodology/approach: Data rely on episodic interviews conducted with both men and women with young children (3–14 years old), within a broader sociological research devoted to the study of family rituals. The data collected was analyzed using qualitative techniques of content analysis with the help of NVivo software (QSR). The data is presented recurring to contextualized narratives.

Findings: Data analysis allows to conclude that geography matters in the perception that young adults have when reflecting upon the role of the elderly surrounding them, either their parents or in-laws. The presence and coexistence of generations are perceived as “priceless,” a “fortune,” and a “privilege,” possible in a medium-sized city, where everything is close enough to thicken the informal intergenerational solidarities between grandparents, parents, and grandchildren. Behind the scenes, data, furthermore, discloses unpredictable tensions arising mainly regarding children’s education, rules, and behavior.

Originality/value: This chapter contributes to shed light into the daily life of elderly people who are still independent and active, and the seemingly invisible presence and unimportant role they play in their children and grandchildren’s lives.

A growing body of research finds that gig economy platforms use gamification to enhance managerial control. Focusing on technologically mediated forms of gamification, this literature reveals how platforms mobilize gig workers’ work effort by making the labour process resemble a game. This chapter contends that this tech-centric scholarship fails to fully capture the historical continuities between contemporary and much older occurrences of game-playing at work. Informed by interviews and participatory observations at two food delivery platforms in Amsterdam, I document how these platforms’ piece wage system gives rise to a workplace dynamic in which severely underpaid delivery couriers continuously employ game strategies to maximize their gig income. Reminiscent of observations from the early shop floor ethnographies of the manufacturing industry, I show that the game of gig income maximization operates as an indirect modality of control by (re)aligning the interests of couriers with the interests of capital and by individualizing and depoliticizing couriers’ overall low wage level. I argue that the new, algorithmic technologies expand and intensify the much older forms of gamified control by infusing the organizational activities of shift and task allocation with the logic of the piece wage game and by increasing the possibilities for interaction, direct feedback and immersion. My study contributes to the literature on gamification in the gig economy by interweaving it with the classic observations derived from the manufacturing industry and by developing a conceptualization of gamification in which both capital and labour exercise agency.

The GrubHub Inc, started as a small food ordering service in Chicago in 2004, and has developed into an e-commerce food delivery giant worth over $3 billion. Since its merger with Seamless in 2013, GrubHub has experienced 53% year-over-year growth in revenue. While online food ordering commerce has been expanding over the years, due to the COVID-19, the industry is experiencing an economic shock. Consumers have begun to isolate themselves from outside as much as possible and local shops have been started to close one by one. As a result, demand has been shrinking to services such as GrubHub, even though otherwise would be expected. In order to survive, the company has to employ new measures and devise new ways of conducting business to protect its competitiveness through catering recently changed needs of community due to the pandemic. This case study explains and demonstrates the set of steps that are taken by GrubHub and their effects on its customers, key business partners, shareholder, and stakeholders.

Purpose – In this chapter, the potential of Milk Run logistics, a method for consolidating freight, is analysed. Milk Run logistics provides a host of possibilities for consolidating freight transport activities and thus using transport capacity efficiently. It utilizes one vehicle to conduct several pick-ups/deliveries in a round trip, which means that the pick-up/delivery points should be located in a limited area which can be covered in a one-day trip.

Findings – Milk Run logistics seems highly beneficial in congested urban environments in developed and developing countries although it may also work in other areas. Furthermore, it can be linked to long-distance logistics, by rail for example, in the national and world-wide network of large companies.

Application – Examples for three automotive companies are given: Toyota with its logistic concept for the Bangkok region, Webasto, a supplier of hardtops and other car parts, and Audi, a daughter company of Volkswagen. All of them have introduced green logistics concepts including Milk Runs, which help to reduce CO2, waste material and – last but not least – costs.

Implications – The chapter concludes with indicating the high potential of Milk Run logistics to China and its rapidly developing automotive industry.