Logistics

Dick’s Sporting Goods is building a new $100 million regional distribution center that will service more than 200 stores throughout the Northeast.   The 650,000-sq.-ft. facility will be located at Broome County Corporate Park in Conklin, New York. Construction will begin in August 2016 and is scheduled for completion in early 2018. Dick’s expects to create 466 full-time jobs at the center during the next five years.  

Matt Powers, who formerly held a high-level real estate executive role at Walmart, is shifting professional gears.   Powers has joined real estate services firm JLL Inc. as an executive VP who will serve on the company’s Retail e-commerce Distribution (ReD) platform. He will help advise retailers on their distribution real estate strategies and implement solutions that help clients achieve their supply chain, e-commerce and omni-channel operational goals.  

Amazon.com Inc. cannot be accused of ignoring the fulfillment needs of customers in California.   The e-tail giant plans to open its 10th California fulfillment center in Sacramento. The new 855,000-plus-sq.-ft. facility, the fourth California fulfillment center Amazon has announced within a span of four months, will create more than 1,000 full-time hourly roles.  

The advent of the back-to-school shopping season is expected to affect import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports.   According to the monthly Global Port Tracker report from the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates, import cargo volume will see a small, but significant, increase in July due to retailers stocking up for back-to-school shoppers. A larger wave of imports is expected to pass through U.S. ports in later summer and early fall as retailers prepare for the end-of-year holiday season.

The mad dash to provide same-day delivery on the part of e-commerce players like Amazon is sapping warehouse space in the U.S. As a result, retailers should budget for higher leasing rates in the year ahead.  

Amazon.com is continuing its aggressive strategy of launching new distribution facilities and physical pickup centers.   The retailer will open a new fulfillment center in Kansas City, Kansas by the end of 2016. The 855,000-sq.-ft. facility, the second large-sized fulfillment center Amazon has announced within a span of four months, will create more than 1,000 full-time roles. In addition to this center and an upcoming facility in Edgerton, Amazon has existing Kansas facilities in Lenexa.  

A new player has entered the value grocery segment.    LogicLane, a start-up company that provides discount wholesale grocery supply chain services and a wholesale grocery e-commerce marketplace for businesses, has entered the retail arena, opening a supermarket in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.       Called Mill Street Merchants, the store is designed to extend the extreme value deals previously only available to national businesses on the LogicLane website to local businesses and consumers.

Nordstrom has taken another step to reduce complexity in its supply chain and improve its shipping of online orders.    The retailer has bought a minority stake in DS Co., a software company that links inventory management between retailers and suppliers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company, based in Utah, offers a cloud-based service, called Dsco, which makes it easier for suppliers to directly ship orders placed through their retail partners.