About 85 percent of all the merchandise sold by wal-Mart was shipped
through its distribution system to its stores. (Competitors supplied to their retail
outlets on average less than 50 percent of the merchandise through their
own distribution cen-ters.) Wal-Mart used a'osaturation" strategy for store exp -pansion.
The standard was to be able to drive from a distribution center to a
store within a day. A distribution center was strategically placed so that it
could eventually serve 150-20owa1-Mart stores within a day. stores were built
as far away as possible but still within a day's drive of the distribution center
the area tlen was fiIled back (or saturated back) to the distribution center'
Each distribution center operated 24 hours a day using laser-guided conveyer
belts and cross-docking techniques that received goods on one side while simultaneously
filling orders on the other'