A warehouse is a space for the storage and / or marketing of merchandise. Depending on the geographical region and context, the term can refer to different types of establishments.
For example: “I’m going to the store to buy noodles, I’ll be back in a few minutes”, “The company announced that it will increase the capacity of its store in Santa Marta”, “The government is concerned about the security of the military store”.
In some countries, a warehouse is a site that is used to store goods. Warehouses are part of the supply chain, serving as warehouses before the goods are taken to their destination. There are also warehouses where spare parts, machinery and supplies of different kinds are kept.
In these warehouses, which are found in factories and stores of different items, the following processes usually occur:
* reception of the merchandise to keep. At this point it is essential that the people in charge know beforehand that they will receive a shipment, and know its content in detail, which they should check before putting their signature to specify the procedure;
* placing the items on the corresponding pallet racking, a metal structure for storing merchandise located on a plastic or wooden frame, among other materials, called a pallet. The order of the merchandise cannot be arbitrary, but must respond to a previously established organization so that all employees who have access to the warehouse can find it quickly;
* preparation of orders. This is also known by the term picking, and it is the step that tests the degree of attention that has been paid to the placement;
* forwarding, the last essential process within a warehouse, since the goods arrive sooner or later to be reclaimed. Here the work of the warehouse managers is articulated with that of the transporters, who may or may not belong to the same company.
For Latin Americans, warehouses are stores for retail sales of basic necessities, especially food. In this case, a warehouse is similar to a market, although with smaller dimensions and a smaller variety of products available to buyers.
These warehouses can be self-service (the consumer takes the products he wants and then pays them when he arrives at the checkout) or have a seller (the grocer) who is in charge of reaching the products to the buyer.
Towards the end of the 90s, small independent stores and many other stores, such as video stores and clothing stores, began to suffer the inevitable international expansion of large chains. Although consumers can find many benefits in having access to many products and services at affordable prices, little by little globalization has been extinguishing the brightness of each city, to replace it with a marquee recognizable throughout the world.
Shops that have multiple merchandise of different classes and that have a large surface area are called department stores or department stores. People in these places can shop from food to clothing to decorative items and appliances. Typically, department stores belong to the same company, unlike shopping centers made up of many stores from different companies.
Some department stores offer a very pleasant atmosphere, with luxurious facilities and an apparently inexhaustible variety of products and services, to give visitors the feeling that they have everything they may need there; however, prices are usually not their strong suit, which is why bargain hunters still prefer specialty stores.
