Toys "R" Us Inc. has opened a distribution center in Saint-Fargeau-Ponthierry, France, to support the company's expanding e-commerce business throughout the country and in select sections of Europe.

Brad Van De Sompele, president at Frontier Electric Supply in Bensenville, Ill., is one long-time member of the National Association of electrical Distributors who's not afraid of Amazon's advances into the electrical industry.

Remember the early days of cell phones when a new model seemed to appear every week and each one looked dramatically different? This is typical of a new product market. Initially, wildly different variants are released and tested in the market, but eventually they converge on a common core set of features. That is, a dominant design emerges from the pack that becomes the de facto standard. Is a similar process redefining logistics in the US?