FIG. GLSTerms
Short working definitions for the language of routes, stores and shops. They are teaching definitions, not legal definitions.
Bringing small lots, often from many farms or workshops, into a quantity that can be graded, priced or transported together.
A quantity made or packed under the same conditions and identified so it can be separated later if something is wrong.
A repeated round of shop visits used to take orders and deliver goods in a territory.
The linked stores, vehicles and handoffs that keep a temperature-sensitive product inside its required conditions.
Moving inbound goods across a dock and out again with little or no storage, usually to change vehicle or to sort destinations.
A firm or trader that holds stock for a territory and resells it onward, often to retailers, in smaller lots.
The work of turning an order into the correct goods, packed and handed to the next carrier or to the buyer.
A storehouse. In everyday commercial speech it often means the practical warehouse, whatever is written on the board outside.
The moment responsibility for goods passes from one party to the next. Counts and condition should be agreed here.
Stock held on purpose so a delay or a spike in orders does not immediately empty the next stage.
A neighbourhood provision shop that sells daily goods in small quantities and often knows its regular households.
The final hop toward the shop or the household. It is usually the most fragmented part of the route.
The time from placing an order, or starting a make, to the moment the goods are available at the next stage.
A produce market where agricultural lots are gathered and traded. Practices differ by place and crop.
The primary pack sold to a person, and the outer pack handled by loaders. Both decide how the route behaves.
The larger movement from a plant or central store toward a regional holder. Usage varies, but the contrast is with the later shop-level hop.
Refilling a store or a shelf that has sold down, rather than placing a one-time order.
The return path for unsold, damaged, recalled or reusable items moving back from shops or households.
The outer carton or case in which saleable units travel. Warehouses often count shippers rather than loose pieces.
A stock keeping unit: one identifiable product in one pack size or variant, tracked separately from its neighbours.
How readily stock moves through a stage. Fast turnover means goods do not sit long. It is a description of movement, not a promise of profit.
A moment when a stage that should have an item has none to issue, even if the item exists somewhere else on the route.
The later movement from a distributor or local holder toward shops. It is usually smaller and more frequent than the trunk hop.
A place that receives, identifies, holds and issues goods. The value is the control of stock, not the size of the shed.
Sale in larger lots to someone who will resell, rather than sale of a single piece to a household.
Carrying and forwarding: an arrangement in which a specialist receives, stores and forwards goods for a principal in a region.
First expired, first out: a habit of issuing the stock that will reach its date soonest, used where dates matter.
The way lead time changes from one order to the next. Buffers exist largely because this variation is real.