Used plastic pallets in Charlotte

Charlotte by county

Count the jobs the BLS can disclose in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia and you reach 18,437 in warehousing and storage for 2025, 1.5% of the metro's private work. The area covers 11 counties: Anson, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg....

Charlotte against North Carolina

The metro's disclosed-county total set beside the state's whole count, so the two can be read together.

ZIPs with the most warehouses

Census ZIP Code Business Patterns for 2023 list 5 ZIPs here with the most warehousing establishments, 94 between them. 28273 (Charlotte) leads with 33, 35% of the listed total.

• 28273 Charlotte: 33 warehousing establishments, 1.4 times 28269.
• 28269 Charlotte: 24 warehousing establishments, 73% of the count in 28273.
• 29730 Rock Hill: 15 warehousing establishments, 45% of the count in 28273.
• 28208 Charlotte: 12 warehousing establishments, 36% of the count in 28273.
• 28027 Concord: 10 warehousing establishments, 30% of the count in 28273.

What the ratios say

The BLS leaves out counties where one employer would show through, so the 18,437 jobs counted for Charlotte may understate the metro.

• Charlotte ranks 23rd of the 60 metros in the data by disclosed warehousing jobs, with 18,437 against a median of 13,652.
• Spread across 11 counties, that is 1,676 warehousing jobs per county on average.
• Mecklenburg County holds 67% of the metro's jobs and York County 16%; the gap between them is 9,281 jobs.
• 28273 has 33 warehousing establishments, 3.3 times as many as 28027 (10) at the other end of the list.
• North Carolina has 54,551 warehousing jobs in all, so the disclosed counties of Charlotte are 34% of the state.
• Warehousing is 1.5% of private jobs in these counties; where it is higher than average, pallets are a daily cost and sellers of surplus are common.
• One Interstate in the data serves the metro, and it carries 72,718 warehousing jobs along the route.
• The metros closest in size are Scranton-Wilkes-Barre (18,912, 475 above) and Harrisburg (17,241, 1,196 below).
• The top three ZIPs, 28273, 28269, 29730, hold 72 of the 94 establishments in the ZIP list, or 77%.
• The ZIP list spans 3 towns, led by Charlotte (69) and Rock Hill (15).
• The ZIP list averages 18.8 warehousing establishments per ZIP across 5 ZIPs, and the quietest, 28027 Concord, has 10.
• Of the 11 counties in the metro, the BLS discloses 3 for warehousing, which together account for 17,099 of the 18,437 jobs counted.
• Charlotte has 1.4 times the disclosed warehousing jobs of the median metro.
• For every warehousing job in these counties there are about 66 other private jobs, so pallet-using work is spread thinly across 11 counties.

Where Charlotte ranks

Charlotte and the 22 metros above it hold 75% of the 1,116,650 warehousing jobs across the 60 metros in the data. The largest, Inland Empire, counts 118,368.

Corridors through Charlotte

Interstate 85 is the Interstate in our data that serves Charlotte.

Neighbouring metros in the data

Metros that share a corridor with Charlotte, and the other metros in North Carolina, with their disclosed warehousing jobs.

The ladder around Charlotte

Metros ranked by disclosed warehousing jobs: Charlotte with the two above it and the two below.

Charlotte's pallet-using trades

Against the national share of employment, warehousing and storage is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, at 1.1x. Warehouses with automated storage need a consistent size for conveyors and a rack rating they can read.

• Warehousing and storage: 18,437 jobs in the disclosed counties, 1.0% of the 1,901,976 across the US, or 1.00 for every warehousing job here.
• Chemical manufacturing: 8,066 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.9% of the 892,426 across the US, or 0.44 for every warehousing job here.

Comparing two lots fairly

• Use the same footprint for both, measured in the same units.
• Compare grade by wear, not by the seller's letter.
• Count makers present in each, since fewer makers means a more uniform lot.
• Compare the share of repaired pieces, and where the repairs sit.
• Set freight, timing and handling beside the wear, rather than in place of it.

Yard storage and weather

• Rain does little harm to plastic, but standing water in the ribs adds weight and breeds odours.
• Freezing weather makes some resins brittle, so avoid dropping or hard-forking cold pallets.
• Hot sun softens decks under load, which is how a stack ends up bowed.
• Wind can topple tall unstrapped stacks, so strap them or keep them short.
• Mud and grit on runners wear floors and conveyors, so brush them off before indoor use.

Requesting a lot for Charlotte

• Footprint: 48 x 40 in, one maker
• Grade: used and clean with a stated rating
• Dock ZIP, for example 28273 or 28269
• Quantity band

Keep reading