Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Minnesota

Minnesota, by road

Minnesota is a place where the Twin Cities sit where I-35 and I-94 cross, and cold winters shape which resin a returnable pallet needs. Pallets here follow I-35, I-94 and I-90, and the distance they travel empty is the cost a nestable cuts.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Hennepin (3,616), Anoka (1,119) and Washington (779), which is 30.8 percent of the state's 17,921. It shares a land border with Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Minnesota held 105 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Hennepin County has 3,616 warehousing jobs, 20.2 percent of Minnesota's 17,921, the most in the state.
• Anoka County has 1,119 warehousing jobs, 6.2 percent of Minnesota's 17,921, 2,497 fewer than Hennepin County.
• Washington County has 779 warehousing jobs, 4.3 percent of Minnesota's 17,921, 2,837 fewer than Hennepin County.
• Meat and poultry processing employs 17,525 people in Minnesota, 0.98 for every warehousing job.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 5,085 people in Minnesota, 0.28 for every warehousing job.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving employs 4,721 people in Minnesota, 0.26 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 47,829 people in Minnesota, 2.67 for every warehousing job.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 14,511 people in Minnesota, 0.81 for every warehousing job.
• Minnesota holds 0.94 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 106, spread over 312 establishments averaging 57 jobs each.
• Minneapolis-St. Paul accounts for 6,599 warehousing jobs, 36.8 percent of Minnesota's.
• Wisconsin has 33,054 warehousing jobs, 1.84 times the 17,921 in Minnesota.
• Iowa has 19,824 warehousing jobs, 1.11 times the 17,921 in Minnesota.
• South Dakota has 3,269 warehousing jobs, 0.18 times the 17,921 in Minnesota.
• North Dakota has 1,438 warehousing jobs, 0.08 times the 17,921 in Minnesota.

Who ships pallets here

In Minnesota, meat and poultry processing employs 17,525. These plants ask about drainage and cleaning first, then about static load for the product stacked on the pallet. It tends to lean on a washable nestable or stackable that drains, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about whether the deck drains and how the maker says to clean it.

Meat and poultry processing is the trade where Minnesota is most concentrated, at 1.6 times the national share of employment. A buyer in that trade will tend to ask the questions in the last column first.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 312 warehouse establishments in Minnesota sent back 800 empty pallets in a week, that would be 249,600 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

Next door

Metros in Minnesota with their own page: Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Words on this page

Open deck

A deck with slots or a grid, which drains water, sheds dust and weighs less than a solid one.

Cube utilisation

How well loaded freight fills the volume of a trailer or container. Taller or wider-than-floor pallets waste cube.

ISPM 15

An international standard on treating and marking wood packaging material. Plastic is outside it.

3PL

A third-party logistics company that stores and ships goods for other businesses.

Location quotient

A place's share of employment in a trade divided by the national share. Above 1 means the trade is more concentrated there than average.

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Pallet pooling

A rental model where a company owns the pallets and moves them between customers, instead of each customer buying its own.

Closed loop

A route where pallets return to the sender after delivery, so the empty trip is a standing cost.

Establishment

A single physical location where a business operates, such as one warehouse. A company with ten warehouses has ten establishments.