Food Distribution Facilities for Memphis, Tennessee, 1976-2000

Excerpts from the report: This study of the current wholesale food distribution facilities and methods used in the Memphis metropolitan area was requested by officials of the city of Memphis, Shelby County, the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, and the Shelby County Growers' Association and was endorsed by members of the local wholesale food industry. The study was begun in mid-1974. Participating were the former Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; the Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service, Shelby County; the Executive Office of Policy Planning and Analysis of the city of Memphis; and local wholesale food firms in Shelby County, Tenn., including Memphis, and in Crittenden County, Ark. The objectives of this study were to determine the adequacy of the present wholesale facilities and methods used in receiving and distributing food and to develop a plan for improvements to meet the needs not only of the present but of the foreseeable future. This report analyzes the present food distribution system in the metropolitan area and presents a guide for developing initial facilities for a wholesale food distribution center for those firms that must relocate. It also includes the requirements and considerations necessary for planning such facilities to serve the greater Memphis area to the year 2000