goods and pre-fab structures warehoused in Miami and south Florida in preparation for a repeal of the embargo that makes it illegal for them to do business with Cuba?
For years I’ve heard rumors that McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, et al. have cargo containers loaded with whole structures and supplies ready to ship out the very day Cuba is open to them. If it’s true, and these plans were set in motion decades ago, it would be interesting to see a these stores and restaurants as a time capsule from the 60s or 70s.
I don’t have a factual answer, but it seems to me that in the 1960s and the 1970s Wal-Mart was not the dominant retailer that it is today. If those plans were set up that long ago, I would imagine that the other retailers (Sears, K-Mart, perhaps Woolworths?) would have been the ones with these ready-to-go stores.
I sincerely doubt it. It would be a waste of money for any company to keep a warehouse full of product just sitting there waiting for Castro to surrender instead of being sent to stores to be sold.
Both McDonald’s and Wal-Mart are such efficient logistics machines that I don’t see why they have to plan ahead much. They already have immense experience with logistics spanning the globe that there is no reason for them to store things in anticipation of Cuba becoming free. That is the exact opposite of their normal business model.
Frankly, I dont think McDeath would have to have preloaded cargotainers per se… they have the mechanism in place to pop out the prefab parts from a central warehouse and have ‘canned’ blueprints and specs … all they need to do is literally sit and order from a catalog from what I understand [they have several specific ‘looks’ and the franchisee literally can tour preset up sample stores and decide which they want … ] I seem to remember seeing an owner interviewed on TV once, and it was rediculously fast from empty lot to opening, a matter of like 2 months total … and much of that was also spent training the staff.
They especially wouldn’t do long-term warehousing in Florida. 30-40 years of heat, humidity and hurricanes?
Wal-Mart would keep that kind of stuff near its headqwuarters in Arkansas - right near where they store the black helicopters for when the U. N. declares martial law and takes over the U. S.
Probably not. First off, even with a repeal of the embargo, Cubans have precious little disposable income. Also, US businesses would have to jump through many hurdles to do business in a free Cuba, just as it has to do for Mexico, Canada or any other country.
Warehousing consumer goods is becoming less common as retailers are adopting just-in-time delivery models for their distribution networks; with Wal-Mart, very little is warehoused for more than a few days. It’s considered a waste of resources and real estate. If the warehouses were in South Florida, they’d also need air conditioning, which would cost millions every month for the scale you’re mentioning.
Most US chains have site-built structures, and standard building plans are less common as a growing number of cities and towns adopt architectural regulations; the grey battleship Wal-Marts of the 1990s would be impossible to build throughout much of the country today. There’s only a few chains with pre-fab structures (Waffle House comes to mind), and then they have to resort to site-built construction in many communities.
If the embargo is lifted, don’t expect to be smoking Cuban cigars in the US for a long time afterwards. There’s a metric shit-ton of trademark issues. Many of the Cuban families that hold the trademarks to famous cigar brands fled the country after the revolution, settling down elsewhere in the Caribbean. They sold cigars to Americans under their old brand names, while the Cuban government uses the brand names to sell Cuban cigars to the rest of the world.
It is damned expensive to sit on potentially salable merchandise. Even if you discount the obvious expenses of warehousing, guarding said warehouses, and paying taxes on the land the warehouses sit on, you’re still incurring a substantial opportunity cost because you are not selling something you could sell and, therefore, not making a profit you could make. That kind of thing would come up at shareholders meetings and it would be damned difficult to justify to all of the people who own enough of the company to influence its decisions.
In addition to the excellent points already made, land would have to be bought, construction plans approved, and facilites built, all of which would take a considerable amount of time. Plus there would be infrastructure issues like electricity, water and sewage lines, etc., to be resolved and which would certainly take considerable time. I imagine these issues alone would negate any time benefit to be derived from having inventory stockpiled and ready to go on a moment’s notice.
Back in 1970, Walmart was a wee toddler of a retailer, with only 40 or so stores. They probably didn’t have their thoughts set on opening stores in a Communist country.
And what kind of merchandise could you stockpile? You’d be fairly limited to nonperishable “doomsday” type stuff that doesn’t go in and out of style - things like tools and house-brand toilet paper.
Even then, you’d be challenged to maintain a dry and temperate environment so the tools don’t rust and the paper goods don’t rot.
As mentioned above, Walmart has a freakishly efficient logistics and distribution system. After Katrina hit, they mobilized a huge effort to bring life’s little essentials to the flood and hurricane victims. If the embargo was lifted, I’d expect they’d be able to have a new store stocked and open for business within two weeks.
Yeah, I think I got some good answers here, but no need to play mini-mod. GQ goes back 3200-some pages (depending on your settings). This’ll sink just like the thousands of other questions.
Not to mention that South Florida has been devastated by a series of hurricanes over the years. There’s no way that materiel would remain in warehouses with that much demand for it.