Both Hunn and Young had access to the Retail Link database that Wal-Mart had made available to its sixty-one thousand U.S. suppliers. From this database, first made accessible to vendors in 1991, Young and other selected executives from Vlasic could look at their sales data to help them understand the source and timing of their brands sold through Wal-Mart. This system helped Vlasic and other companies service Wal-Mart in the way that Wal-Mart wanted, with speed and care. In most stores, the system was connected at the individual store level allowing a given supplier to receive reports of shelf movement via real-time satellite links that update the system report each time a scan occurred at the point-of-purchase. Thus, the supplier was able to adjust its manufacturing qualities in real-time. The accuracy and timeliness of this type of system eliminated warehouse stock pile-ups, saving time and processing costs for the supplier. A supplier that did not have this type of electronic data interchange throughout the supply chain usually had higher costs and, therefore, would be likely to have difficulty meeting Wal-Mart’s demands.