Brace yourself: here comes the urban mega-warehouse

As the growth of e-commerce retail continues to show no signs of abating, the supply chains that serve that business are now faced with how to cater for that growth, and according to this report from SupplyChainBrain one emerging strategy is to site huge warehouses at the epicentre of urban areas to satisfy consumer demand for same- and next-day deliveries. In New York’s Bronx area, for example, there is a 1m sq ft distribution centre under construction for opening in 2021: “Until now, similar projects in US cities have for the most part been considered economically unfeasible. Not any more. Developers and their retailing tenants are willing to pay the extra cost of urban land in exchange for being able to reach city dwellers within a matter of hours.”