According to the National Retail Federation:

More than 151 million people said they shopped either in stores and/or online over the weekend, according to NRF's survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. Nearly 102 million people say they shopped in stores over the Thanksgiving weekend, and more than 103 million say they shopped online. Those under 35 were most likely to shop over the weekend.

CNET reported that so-called Cyber Monday "reached $3 billion in sales, up 12 percent from last year... making it the largest online sales day in the US ever."

The increasing strength of online retail is straining -- and driving innovation, competition, and occasional desperation -- across supply networks.

According to the constantly updating IBM Benchmark Survey:

Thanksgiving Day online sales were up 26 percent compared to a year ago. But the average spend per order on Thursday was $123.45, down from $125.25 a year ago. In 2013 the average total purchase on Thanksgiving Day was $132.  Roughly a third of purchases are being made on mobile devices.

As of mid-day on Black Friday tracking suggested a possible decline in year-to-year online sales.

According to CBRE:

Over the past 35 years, global trade has increased by nearly 600%, propelling the growth of logistics hubs in virtually every country around the world.

These hubs are connected via hub-and-spoke systems centered around 30 global logistics hubs—including the likes of Los Angeles, Chicago, Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and Paris—that form the backbone of today’s global supply chain.

However, as emerging markets grow and new centers of production materialize, 20 emerging markets are on the verge of becoming global logistics hubs over the next decade, including South Florida, Bajio, Busan, Suzhou, Berlin and Amsterdam.

These locations warrant close attention from the marketplace, as logistics hubs are typically home to large clusters of distribution facilities that are highly sought after by major real estate investors and logistics operators.

WUMO by Wulff and Morenthaler

According to the Los Angeles Times:

The neighborhoods of West Los Angeles may have gotten it first, but Google's overnight delivery service, Google Express, is now available to everyone in Southern California, from San Diego to Anaheim to Downtown L.A.

With the expansion of the service, customers across Southern California will have the option to sign up for a $95 annual membership, or pay a fee of $4.99 per eligible order to use the service.

Once registered, customers can browse products from different retailers through the Google Express portal and have those products delivered overnight. Residents in West Los Angeles can have certain items delivered the same day.

Borders, natural or legal or otherwise, complicate supply networks. Reducing time-or-space division is one way of describing the goal of supply chain management.  The sudden emergence of unexpected divisions can be especially disruptive.  But in an open system supply networks will tend to be quickly creative in finding a way around.  According to Marketplace, in response to the Paris attacks and the threat of more several European nations are considering long-term reestablishment of border controls that would significantly impact the supply chain.

Recently I received a copy of a study conducted by UPS on the healthcare supply chain.  A global survey asked, among many other things, about the respondents perceptions of contingency planning.  UPS found the answers disconcerting.  Below is an excerpt from their report.

Last week's passage of a House Transportation bill is important to long-term supply chain efficiency and resilience.  According to Politico:

The House's base bill, which passed in a 363-64 vote, authorizes nearly $340 billion for highway and transit program over six years. The original bill would have paid for just three years of funding, but an amendment adopted at the last minute Thursday could add an additional $40 billion, shoring up funding for the life of the bill.

But according to The Trucker, the political "break-through" may be almost too little, too late in terms of what is really needed.

Marcia Hale, president of Building America’s Future, an organization that promotes infrastructure investment, laid it on the line, reflecting many complaints about the need to address the nation’s highway, bridge and transportation network’s condition.

“Congress has a history of kicking the can down the road with short-term funding bills that make it highly difficult for projects — such as road and bridge maintenance, and transit network repairs — to start or continue,” Hale said. “While we see this long-term bill as a positive sign, we still believe that the funding levels outlined (in the bill) are less than optimal, and will hardly make a dent in the massive infrastructure and transportation funding deficit currently facing our country.”

Big changes in consumer purchasing behavior, increasing population concentration, and the new opportunities presented by the expansion of the Panama Canal -- to mention but a few -- converge to present significant transportation challenges for the next thirty-plus years.

A West Coast colleague pointed me to a fantastic collection of maps for the retail grocery industry at Big Think.  Each one is interesting -- though not entirely accurate according to my understanding.  Taken together the collection helps suggest the sort of retail ecology on which the US population depends. Below is the distribution of Target stores.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that what seems like a lot of foodborne disease outbreaks really is happening.  The number has nearly tripled over the last twenty years.  Concentration of production, processing, and distribution serves to amplify the impact of many outbreaks.