This enabled him to sell his bleach under an arrangement in which retailers' trucks were loaded with his bleach after making their retail deliveries and before returning to their respective distribution centers.
By adding other items to his product line, he was able to obtain efficient truckload orders from his retail chain customers.
Building a retail "store" that consisted of a convenience-oriented self-service front end and a large truck dock in the rear, they have raw milk delivered by tank trucks and put into vats in the rear of the store.
Having expanded its line to include other food items often purchased in large quantities, this retailer now enjoys one of the highest sales-per-square foot ratios of any retailer in the United States and does a volume of sales through its relatively small outlet that many supermarket operators would be pleased to achieve.
The ships carried materials in bulk from plants in the Caribbean to Gulf and East Coast ports for subsequent transfer to barges and rail cars for delivery to terminals at which customers' orders were packed into containers for final delivery by rail and truck.
This system requires that orders processed in Puerto Rico be shipped in containers that will be delivered direct to customers in the eastern United States by a combination of river barge, rail, and truck.
As a result (1) repackaging at all inland terminals eventually will be eliminated, (2) material handling costs and capacities at Gulf and East Coast port facilities will be greatly reduced, and (3) because of the increased frequency of departures of ocean-going container barges from plants, orders will be delivered to customers with little or no increase in order response time and only a small increase in total inventory in the system.
The recent emphasis on effective inventory management through wide swings in business cycles characterized by varying rates of increase in labor costs, fluctuating interest costs, and changing rates of sale.
The increasing involvement of federal and state agencies in issues ranging from the semi nationalization of a portion of the transportation network to the availability of advertised sale merchandise on the shelves of retail establishments.