Storage
Although the primary role of a distribution center is to receive large quantities of products and ship small quantities to individual stores, an important secondary role is storage. Many retailers give priority to having as many items in stock at once as possible. To conserve space, minimize inventory costs, and maximize the variety they offer, the retailer might stock only one or a few items of a particular product. This requires the ability to ship a replacement quickly once an item is sold. By keeping product on hand in the distribution center, the retailer can ship a replacement almost immediately after a product is sold.
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Famous quotes containing the word storage:
“Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to me extravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)