When Jefferies’ Giles Thorne signed up to a life of investment banking, delivering Uber Eats orders and sitting in the rain outside grocery startup warehouses were not exactly part of the job description.

The US investment bank equity research analyst and two of his colleagues spent around 100 hours across seven days last month posted in front of warehouses for grocery startups Getir, Gorillas and Weezy, armed with a camping chair, coffee and a clipboard. Their mission? To count the number of orders made at each site and calculate how profitable the dark store model is, as part of their coverage for the likes of listed firms Just Eat and Delivery Hero.