Of the European subsidiaries, Polaroid France had the largest number of customer requiring shipment of products directly to individual retail establishments. This was due to the large proportion of volume channeled through photo-specialty dealers, and to some hypermarket chain’s practice of asking Polaroid to deliver products directly to individual stores rather than to the chain’s central distribution center. In this way, the hypermarket were able to reduce their inventory and the associated risk of product spoilage and obsolescence. To complicate matters further, some customers wanted Polaroid to deliver certain products, such as cameras, directly to their retail outlets and other products, such as film, to their central or regional distribution centers.