The tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers arrive year-round by the ton, with peel-off stickers proclaiming "Product of Mexico."

Are cryptocurrencies like bitcoin gaining legitimacy in the retail and services sector? And what impact might they have on the supply chain?

The big North American distributor of industrial products was looking for a means to eliminate paper and curb the flood of e-mail exchanges generated by its supplier-management efforts. It also wanted to keep closer tabs on a growing supplier base. Time for an automated solution.

You would think that proper risk management would be top of mind for high-tech supply chain executives. So why do they keep getting it wrong?

The nationwide driver shortage just won't go away. And shippers are paying the price.

China's air and water pollution is more visible than its soil pollution and more often makes headlines. But recent government studies underscore the worrying extent of heavy-metal pollution tainting China's agricultural lands - and its food supply.

Right now, many merchants who sell their products online and do not have a distribution center, warehouse or retail store in the state into which their product is sold aren't charging sales taxes, and cannot be required to collect them at the point of purchase. This stands in stark contrast to local wholesaler -distributors and retailers - businesses that have a brick-and-mortar presence on the Main Streets and in the commercial and industrial parks of our cities and towns and who provide jobs to our family members, friends and neighbors - who are required by law to do so.