It takes literally billions of pallets to keep supply chains. Hundreds of millions of new pallets are produced every year just to maintain the numbers needed to keep the stream of goods flowing from manufacturers to retailers and consumers. Even a single manufacturer or distributor deals with a huge number of weight pallets, and keeping track of them all as they come into the warehouse and are loaded with products and shipped to retailers is a substantial task.
In fact, managing pallet inventory is such a hassle that many companies do not even bother to do more than ensure they have enough pallets on hand to make a shipment. They treat their pallets as disposable, shipping them one way and foregoing retrieval. This treatment is understandable when the pallets being used have a short lifespan. However, many retailers are tired of receiving damaged stringer pallets and are demanding the use of more durable, higher-quality pallets in order to reduce product damage during shipping and make pallets safer to handle once they arrive. Walmart, for instance, demands products be shipped to them on high-quality block pallets that meet or exceed the highest Grocery Manufacturers Association pallet grades. These sturdier block pallets cost too much to be thoughtlessly disposed of, and as a result, many companies are being forced to develop a means of managing a pallet inventory.