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The pneumatic tube business isn't dead yet

Apr 25, 2024
Hospitals still use the tubes for moving medicines and samples. But sales are now higher thanks to cannabis dispensaries.
Scott Rudder demonstrating the pneumatic tube system at Township Green, his cannabis dispensary in Riverside, New Jersey.
Matthew Algeo/Marketplace

Package deliveries are clogging city streets

Mar 21, 2024
Retailers, shipping companies and cities are working together to solve the problem.
Michael Singh prepares for his Amazon cargo bike delivery shift.
Kristin Schwab/Marketplace

Freight railroads want to let companies track shipments to compete with trucking

Feb 15, 2024
But so far they've only added GPS tracking to less than 1% of the nation's railcars.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Walmart is shopping an unexpected product: its technology

Jan 17, 2023
Analysts say the world's largest retailer is growing its footprint in services as it seeks new sources of revenue.
Walmart's new partnership with Salesforce is helping it branch out more into services and tech.
Samuel Corum//AFP via Getty Images

The super-fast delivery market is booming

Nov 26, 2021
Rather than waiting a day or two for an online order, ultra-fast delivery apps are promising orders can be delivered in as little as 10 minutes.
Getir employees prepare online grocery orders for delivery at a store warehouse in Istanbul in October 2021.
Chris McGrath via Getty Images

Amazon has tacked on a Whole Foods delivery fee. Add to cart?

Oct 29, 2021
Even the giant online retailer is feeling the high cost and slim margin of the grocery business.
"Grocery, in the best of circumstances, is a very low-margin business," says Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at Forrester.
Cindy Ord via Getty Images

Why curbside pickup has been a win for both retailers and consumers

Aug 26, 2021
The ease of online shopping combined with the immediacy of pickup could save retailers on logistics and draw customers back from delivery.
An employee delivers a curbside pickup order to a customer's vehicle at a California Best Buy store in November 2020. Curbside pickup has proven a win-win for customers and retailers during the pandemic.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Walmart will make local "white label" deliveries for other retailers

Aug 24, 2021
The retail giant already has a well developed "last-mile" delivery network in parts of the country.
Walmart announced Tuesday that it will be expanding its delivery service to handle shipments from other businesses in a "white label" shipping service called GoLocal.
George Frey via Getty Images

Robots have started to share the bike lane in Austin to deliver pizza

Jul 9, 2021
Some cyclists aren't happy about the new arrangement, but others say it may put a new focus on bicycle infrastructure.
Riley Pakes, with Refraction AI robotics company, monitors a REV-1 delivery robot on South Congress Avenue in Austin, TX on June 16, 2021.
Gabriel C. Pérez/KUT News

Retailers have to figure out how to handle all our online returns

Dec 14, 2020
One challenge for those managing "reverse logistics"? Not enough room to store everything we want to send back, one study says.
Packages are processed at a U.S. Postal Service distribution center in Oakland, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images