Used plastic pallets in Yakima

Where the warehouses are in Yakima

Yakima spans 1 county (Yakima). In the counties where the Bureau of Labor Statistics can publish, private employers had 1,309 warehousing and storage jobs in 2025, 1.3% of local private jobs.

Yakima against Washington

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

Yakima ZIPs to name on a request

Census ZIP Code Business Patterns for 2023 list 2 ZIPs here with the most warehousing establishments, 7 between them. 98930 (Grandview) leads with 4, 57% of the listed total.

• 98930 Grandview: 4 warehousing establishments, 1.3 times 98903.
• 98903 Yakima: 3 warehousing establishments, 75% of the count in 98930.

What the ratios say

County totals for Yakima are floors, since the BLS hides counties with too few employers to publish; the 1,309 jobs are the disclosed part.

• Yakima ranks 57th of the 60 metros in the data by disclosed warehousing jobs, with 1,309 against a median of 13,652.
• Spread across 1 county, that is 1,309 warehousing jobs per county on average.
• 98930 has 4 warehousing establishments, 1.3 times as many as 98903 (3) at the other end of the list.
• Washington has 36,691 warehousing jobs in all, so the disclosed counties of Yakima are 3.6% of the state.
• Warehousing is 1.3% of private jobs in these counties; where it is higher than average, pallets are a daily cost and sellers of surplus are common.
• The metros closest in size are Knoxville (1,751, 442 above) and Gainesville, GA (656, 653 below).
• The ZIP list spans 2 towns, led by Grandview (4) and Yakima (3).
• The ZIP list averages 3.5 warehousing establishments per ZIP across 2 ZIPs, and the quietest, 98903 Yakima, has 3.
• Reaching the median metro would take 10.4 times the disclosed warehousing jobs Yakima has now.
• For every warehousing job in these counties there are about 76 other private jobs, so pallet-using work is spread thinly across the one county.

Where Yakima ranks

Yakima is one of the 4 smallest of the 60 metros by disclosed warehousing jobs. The largest, Inland Empire, counts 118,368, which is 90 times as many.

Highways around Yakima

No Interstate corridor in our data lists Yakima, so the county and ZIP figures carry this page.

The ladder around Yakima

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

Who buys pallets around Yakima

Against the national share of employment, fruit and vegetable preserving is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Yakima, at 8.9x. Food plants ask for clean, odour-free, washable decks. Food-contact papers come from the maker, not from the grade.

• Fruit and vegetable preserving: 1,125 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.6% of the 173,844 across the US, or 0.86 for every warehousing job here.
• Grocery and related product wholesale: 1,602 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.2% of the 829,364 across the US, or 1.22 for every warehousing job here.
• Plastics product manufacturing: 1,005 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.2% of the 575,006 across the US, or 0.77 for every warehousing job here.
• Food manufacturing: 2,795 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.2% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 2.14 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.

Wear you can measure

• Deck bow: lay the straight edge across and slide a feeler between it and the deck.
• Runner flattening: compare the thickness of a worn runner with an unworn one.
• Corner loss: hold a square against the corner and note any missing plastic.
• Pocket height: measure the opening at both ends of each fork pocket.
• Weight: weigh three pallets on a platform scale and note the spread.

What to send for a Yakima lot

• Footprint: 48 x 40 in or 56 x 44 in
• Grade: like new or used and clean
• Dock ZIP, for example 98930 or 98903
• Quantity band

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