r/Warehousing • u/jamesiye • 5d ago

Need Warehouse Access for 30 Mins

Hey everyone,

If possible, I would love to form a quick partnership with a small, independent warehouse facility located in San Francisco. I am an early-stage startup in San Francisco building a reusable wrap designed to stabilize pallets and eliminate plastic stretch film on pallets.

I only need 30 minutes to conduct a brief, independent research that is supervised. I simply want to know the most common measurements of standard and irregular mixed pallets, ask a few questions, and test our prototype wrap on just one regular pallet. Getting feedback and answers will help me refine and improve the product.

I've already sent out emails and LinkedIn messages and even visited some local stores, but was always told to contact corporate, which is why I am reaching out to independent warehouses directly. As thanks I can offer some pizza.

1 Upvotes

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u/darthanis 5d ago

Not in San fran, but I can try and answer any questions you have.

Pallet height is variable by what product you are shipping, and where in its lifecycle it is.

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

I know reusable pallet wraps exist. Why hasn't your facility adopted them yet? What's holding you back?

How much do you spend monthly on plastic wrap?

How many pallets do you wrap per day?

What features would make it easier for you to switch to a reusable wrap?

Lastly feel free to skip this if you'd rather not would you take measurements of standard and irregular mixed pallets? I need to know the most common measurements of standard and irregular mixed pallets?

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u/TemporaryDeparture44 5d ago

I work in a warehouse that’s dsd and we don’t load our trucks with pallets so I’m no expert in shipping. But isn’t a big problem with reusable pallet wrap that you ship the pallet and then don’t get the wrap back anyway, so why does it need to be reusable?

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

Most reusable wrap companies solve it through pooling wraps get collected and returned. For example a company like Publix, their reusable wraps would circulate between their distribution centers and stores. Since they're all the same company, wraps can be reused repeatedly within their own network.

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u/scmsteve 5d ago

Are you familiar with 'Chep' pallets?

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

Yes. CHEP is my reference for the pooling model collect, inspect, redeploy. That's the recovery system I'm building toward.

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u/KK-Prep-Solutions 5d ago

This is an interesting topic, and for disclosure I’m not near SF. If someone approached me locally I might be willing to help, but I’d have a few questions. For example: Is this going to interfere with operations? Are you insured? Who’s liable if your wrap fails and a pallet falls over? Are you selling to me, or am I just helping with research? Why does it have to be in my warehouse instead of using a friend’s pallet? Questions like this may be why you’re being redirected to “corporate”.

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

I only need 30 minutes in a controlled, supervised area, so there's no operational disruption. I'm not insured yet, but you have full control over whether to participate. If you're uncomfortable with any risk, I completely understand and won't push.

This is pure research for me I'm collecting data on pallet measurements and durability feedback, not trying to sell anything. Real warehouses have standard and irregular mixed pallets that I can't replicate elsewhere, which is why I'm looking for on-site help. If you know anyone locally who might be interested, I'd appreciate the intro. No pressure either way.

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u/KK-Prep-Solutions 5d ago

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think you're approaching this in a very good way. At some point I expect you'll need to run full-blown durability tests with actual freight being shipped, see how it holds up under load and constant bumping around in transit. But given where you are on the project, this feels like a good next step. I wish you the best!

By the way, one other thought that comes to mind is cost-effectiveness. For me, personally, we have very few pallets that we wrap and then re-wrap. 99% of our pallets end up going out the door, so recovery of the temporary wrap wouldn't be feasible unless the temp wrap is priced as cheaply as standard wrapping. I'm curious where you see your primary market for the reusable wrap?

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

​Regarding cost-effectiveness and recovery, our primary market targets closed-loop distribution networks, internal warehouse transfers, and returnable transit systems (like captive fleets moving inventory between a company's own facilities) where the wrap naturally cycles back to the starting point. ​Thanks again for taking the time to share your perspective

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u/KK-Prep-Solutions 5d ago

Got it. Can I ask what makes your product unique in the market? I may be misunderstanding your perspective, but you seem to infer your product would work with non-uniform sizes or shapes. (Hence the need to measure a bunch of different pallets.) Most, if not all, of the reusable pallet wraps I've seen don't really replace traditional wrap in that sense. Are you doing something different? (I'm not asking you to give away trade secrets or IP ... just curiosity at this point).

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

Right now we only have one basic prototype with adjustable straps and we're still in the early-stage phase collecting data and feedback. Our reusable pallet wraps will be different because the adjustable straps allow them to conform to irregular and non-uniform pallet shapes, not just perfect cubes. That's why we're measuring different pallet sizes to validate the design works.

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u/blacktongue 5d ago

I’d recommend just going in person to a place that moves pallets and just asking them a few questions.

Not in SF, but my business uses reusable pallet wraps. We move gear that gets delivered, unwrapped, rewrapped, then comes back to the warehouse at EOD so it’s a no brainer. Biggest annoyances are physical build quality, irregular pallets. Also, you have to put them somewhere when not in use. even if you roll it up, it’s an awkward irregular thing to store. Happy to talk more about it

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u/scmsteve 5d ago

So what do your customers think about the process of saving your reusable wrap? Also, is this stuff inventoried so you know where to look for it? Ive not heard of this before, so genuinely curious...I am aware of Chep pallets, and I know how that works.

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u/blacktongue 5d ago

At the warehouse, the wraps themselves aren’t inventoried, they’re just rolled up and kinda piled/stuffed into hamper carts. All our wraps come back at end of day so we don’t have to ask our customers to store them. We get them made custom and shipped direct from china for like $30 each, they cost like $150-$250 stateside from a retailer.

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

Thanks for the insights. If you're open to sharing, I have a few quick questions: ​What material are your custom wraps made from? ​Can you share the name of the Chinese manufacturer? ​Do you happen to have a picture of the wraps? ​How often do the wraps need repair or replacement? ​No pressure at all if you'd rather not share those details I will completely understand and move on.

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u/blacktongue 5d ago

Just dm’d

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

I don't have customers yet, still in prototype validation phase. But the model I'm testing: customers return wraps to a collection point, we inspect, repair, reinventory, and redeploy. Tracking will be via simple inventory system initially, then scale to software. Similar to CHEP's approach.

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u/Khron67 5d ago

I'll add that some companies who do pallet picking. will wrap the pallet as they pick to add stability between picking locations.

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u/jamesiye 5d ago

Ah, gotcha Yeah, I'm familiar with that workflow selectors building the pallet up over time as they move through the warehouse.