Pallets in Southaven, Mississippi

BOX 01Where it sits

Southaven is about 14 miles south of downtown Memphis and about six miles southwest of Memphis International Airport. The city had 54,648 residents in the 2020 census and an estimated 57,493 in 2024, making it the third most populous city in Mississippi, per Wikipedia. Its name reflects its position south of Whitehaven, a Memphis neighborhood.

Interstate 55 and Interstate 69 run north to south through the city as one shared freeway. US 51 and MS 302 are the other routes listed, and the Grenada Railroad runs 228 miles of track between Canton, Mississippi, and Memphis.

BOX 02The distribution buildings

Medline's Southaven medical-grade distribution center is 1.2 million square feet and opened at the end of 2021, according to Medline. Trade announcements have also named Hormel, ALO and others in the city. Headcounts in old announcements are not current.

Medical supply, apparel fulfillment, food distribution and industrial-parts distribution are the four industries the area is known for.

BOX 03What the docks ship on and shed

A medical-supply dock cannot take a damp pallet, so see keeping pallets dry and medical supply and devices.

BOX 04Requests from Southaven

The route into Memphis is short, and Southaven docks trade pallets with Southeast Memphis and Horn Lake as freely as with each other. Name a ZIP code, a size and a count. For a dock that fills every week, recurring pickup; for graded stock, used pallets; and for the neighbor to the east, Olive Branch.

BOX 05The beltway beside the city

Interstate 269 starts at I-55 and I-69 in Hernando and runs north to an interchange with MS 302 by Olive Branch before it crosses the Tennessee line east of the city. The segment from MS 302 to MS 305 opened on December 5, 2017, and the whole route, 45.19 miles, was completed in October 2018 (Wikipedia). The beltway lets a truck leaving a Southaven dock reach I-40 east of Memphis or I-55 at Hernando without crossing the city.

For the pallet trade, that gives Southaven docks a wider set of nearby buyers than their address suggests, because a trip to Collierville or Arlington no longer means going through central Memphis.

BOX 06Medical docks and what they refuse

A medical-supply distributor in Southaven is likely to refuse any pallet with a visible stain, a musty smell, protruding nails or a fresh-cut odor. Those are the reasons a buyer of clean stock gives for turning a pile down.

• Damp wood: reject, and keep it off the clean stack.
• Chemical or food residue: name it in the request.
• Foreign marks that could be mistaken for hazard labels: remove or note.

See medical supply and devices for the longer version.

BOX 07A request from a Southaven dock, line by line

Consider this request: "About 600 pallets, 48 x 40, mostly Grade B, a tenth with cracked stringers, stacked in tens against the east wall of a dock in 38671, none damp; one-time pile after a reset."

The word "reset" is useful here. Distribution buildings periodically reorganize their racks, and a reset produces a large, one-time pile of pallets, unlike the steady stream of daily operations. A buyer reads the two differently, and a request should say which it is.

BOX 08Neighboring pages

Southaven shares a border with Horn Lake to the west and a boundary with Memphis to the north, and a Southaven dock is minutes from the Southeast belt. If a pile is at a boundary, name the ZIP code it is in. See Horn Lake and Southeast Memphis.

BOX 09Local detail that places the pile

Southaven is spread across a wide area, from older residential streets near the Tennessee line to newer commercial land along the interstate. A building on the interstate side is in a very different position from one near the old center. Giving the nearest interchange or main road takes a few words and saves a call.

Southaven's ZIP codes are 38671 and 38672. If a building sits close to the border with Horn Lake, say which ZIP code is on the mail.