Wholesale
My wholesale experience is rather varied and includes items like fresh and frozen foods as well as technical bespoke magnets. As such I have dealt with the logistics of the highly perishables, the ‘consume by’ articles, but also the never expire items. All require a vastly different take on contracts, both on the procurement as well as on the sales side: I have to be able to supply the highly perishables, without being stuck with a constant flow of goods for which I have no takers.
The ‘never expires’ I can procure in bulk at special prices, but at the same time I need to secure that I can sell all I have bought.
But also the actual transport requirements have been very different, from simple vans making 50 stops a day, delivering goods as soon as they are ordered, to international hub and spoke deliveries where you try to combine just the optimum set of orders to minimise cost and/or maximise speed. I’ve personally written complex programs to enable our staff to immediately identify both cost and speed so as to inform customers at the point of order.
See also: