The North American retail distribution supply chain landscape continues to evolve in response to unprecedented pressure to reduce operating expenses. The primary cause of turmoil in the retail sector is of course due to the unbelievable growth that Walmart has experienced over the past five decades which has quite literally decimated many companies that maintained a "business as usual" strategy.
Without doubt, the dominant trend in retail distribution in recent decades has been the dramatic increase in the retailers' control of the supply chain. North American retailers have been executing on a variety of strategies to increase inventory turns and to reduce operating expenses. In the food industry, one of the important trends that retailers and branded food producers have leveraged is the concept of Direct Store Delivery.
