Selling plastic pallets from retail and grocery

What retail and grocery sellers have

Retail receiving managers collect pooled and one-way pallets with every load. What stays behind is a mixed stack: some marked, some strays, some their own.

Footprints and styles in retail and grocery lots

The retail and grocery market in numbers

Census Bureau figures put seasonally adjusted e-commerce sales at $340.2 billion, 17.1 percent of total retail sales, in the second quarter of 2026. More parcels and more pallets pass through retail docks than before.

How a retail and grocery lot is read

The stray stack is read in three lanes: marked, unmarked and broken. See strays from suppliers for the lane sort and the record to keep.

Unmarked, whole pallets read as a sale. Marked ones go back to their owners.

What to say when you send a retail and grocery lot

• Which suppliers delivered the pallets, if you know
• Marked and unmarked counts
• Photos of any mark
• How long the stacks have been on the dock

Words you will meet

RFID

Radio tag moulded or fixed into a pallet so it can be tracked.

CP9

A chemical-industry pallet standard, 1140 x 1140 mm.

HDPE

High-density polyethylene, resin code 2. The most common resin in plastic pallets; tough and moisture resistant.

One-way pallet

A cheaper pallet shipped with the load and not expected back.

ISPM 15

The international standard for treating wood packaging against pests. Plastic pallets are outside it.

UL 2335

UL fire-test standard for storage pallets, with an idle pallet test and a commodity storage test.

Commodity classification

Sprinkler design class of stored goods; an unlisted plastic pallet can raise it.

Creep

Slow bending of plastic under a heavy load held for a long time.

Structural foam

Low-pressure moulding where a blowing agent expands the resin in the mould.

Rotational moulding

Resin heated in a rotating mould to make a hollow jointless part.

Stackable

Loaded pallets can sit on top of each other, up to the static rating.

Closed loop

Pallets that travel between known sites and come back, so they are never lost to a downstream user.

FM 4996

FM Approvals standard that rates a pallet as equal to wood in fire tests.

Thermoforming

Heated plastic sheet formed over a mould; lighter pallets.

Profile extrusion

Pushing resin through a die to make long shapes that form pallet parts.

GMA pallet

The 48 x 40 in North American standard footprint.

Who asks, and what they need

Retailers that collect pooled or one-way pallets

Stacks of marked and unmarked pallets left by suppliers; need to know which can be sold and which belong to a pool.

Export shippers

Light or low-cost one-way pallets with no ISPM 15 treatment; Euro 1200 x 800 and 1200 x 1000 sizes.

Distribution centres with surplus pallets

Sell or recycle excess lots, mixed makers and colours, broken pallets.

What the sources say

• Counties with the most private grocery and related product wholesale jobs (NAICS 4244) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Los Angeles County, California (36,194), Cook County, Illinois (23,404), Miami-Dade County, Florida (14,422), Harris County, Texas (14,172), Dallas County, Texas (12,337), Maricopa County, Arizona (9,996). (data.bls.gov)
• Private employers in the US averaged 829,364 jobs across 49,933 establishments in grocery and related product wholesale (NAICS 4244) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: California (109,827), Texas (75,474), Florida (63,967), New York (50,594), Illinois (48,629). (data.bls.gov)
• Counties with the most private motor vehicle manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3361) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Wayne County, Michigan (24,188), Bexar County, Texas (6,165), Cook County, Illinois (5,473), Eaton County, Michigan (4,432), Oakland County, Michigan (735), Los Angeles County, California (643). (data.bls.gov)
• Census Bureau: seasonally adjusted e-commerce sales were $340.2 billion, 17.1 percent of total retail sales, in the second quarter of 2026 (released August 18, 2026). (census.gov)
• Counties with the most private fruit and vegetable preserving jobs (NAICS 3114) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Los Angeles County, California (3,695), Stanislaus County, California (3,669), Fresno County, California (3,355), Cook County, Illinois (2,861), Franklin County, Washington (2,520), Marion County, Oregon (2,273). (data.bls.gov)
• Counties with the most private refrigerated warehousing jobs (NAICS 49312) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Los Angeles County, California (2,320), Middlesex County, New Jersey (1,661), San Bernardino County, California (1,565), Cook County, Illinois (1,552), Wayne County, Michigan (1,041), Maricopa County, Arizona (871). (data.bls.gov)
• Counties with the most private meat and poultry processing jobs (NAICS 3116) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Hall County, Georgia (11,123), Cook County, Illinois (8,367), Sussex County, Delaware (8,212), Marshall County, Alabama (7,387), Fresno County, California (6,499), Douglas County, Nebraska (6,452). (data.bls.gov)
• Counties with the most private dairy product manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3115) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (3,238), Los Angeles County, California (3,204), Franklin County, Ohio (2,930), Tulare County, California (2,916), Dodge County, Wisconsin (2,659), Marathon County, Wisconsin (2,535). (data.bls.gov)
• Counties with the most private motor vehicle parts manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3363) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Wayne County, Michigan (20,888), Macomb County, Michigan (20,279), Oakland County, Michigan (16,970), Kent County, Michigan (8,688), Spartanburg County, South Carolina (6,496), Cook County, Illinois (6,273). (data.bls.gov)
• Private employers in the US averaged 316,938 jobs across 16,316 establishments in beverage manufacturing (NAICS 3121) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: California (63,604), Texas (24,154), New York (13,802), Pennsylvania (13,207), Florida (12,661). (data.bls.gov)
• Counties with the most private warehousing and storage jobs (NAICS 493) in 2025, BLS QCEW: San Bernardino County, California (67,058), Riverside County, California (51,310), Dallas County, Texas (44,657), Maricopa County, Arizona (42,291), San Joaquin County, California (28,518), Clark County, Nevada (28,250), Middlesex County, New Jersey (26,309), Will County, Illinois (25,357). (data.bls.gov)
• Counties with the most private pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3254) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Lake County, Illinois (16,883), Marion County, Indiana (16,292), Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (11,878), Suffolk County, New York (10,760), Los Angeles County, California (8,300), San Diego County, California (8,028). (data.bls.gov)
• Private employers in the US averaged 168,222 jobs across 2,809 establishments in dairy product manufacturing (NAICS 3115) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Wisconsin (28,840), California (18,374), New York (11,603), Ohio (8,963), Texas (7,529). (data.bls.gov)
• Private warehousing and storage (NAICS 493) paid an average of $56,706 a year across 1,901,976 jobs in 2025 (BLS QCEW). (data.bls.gov)
• States where dairy product manufacturing is the largest share of private jobs in 2025 (BLS QCEW): Wisconsin (1.1%), Vermont (0.8%), Idaho (0.7%), South Dakota (0.4%), Iowa (0.3%); the national share is 0.13%. (data.bls.gov)
• Private employers in the US averaged 1,901,976 jobs across 23,345 establishments in warehousing and storage (NAICS 493) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: California (236,923), Texas (175,579), Pennsylvania (123,481), Florida (105,401), Ohio (98,354). (data.bls.gov)

• BLS QCEW: NAICS 4244, 2025
• Census Bureau: e-commerce
• Pallet Enterprise: CHEP and the California recyclers

Keep reading

• Industries
• Food and beverage
• Distribution centers
• Third-party logistics
• Sell
• Areas
• Sort your pile