Nestable and Stackable Pallets: South Dakota

South Dakota, by road

I-90 crosses it east to west and I-29 meets it at Sioux Falls, where most of the warehouses cluster. For a plastic pallet buyer in South Dakota, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-90 and I-29 carry most of what leaves, and every empty pallet that comes back has to ride the same road.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Minnehaha (2,930), Pennington (33) and Union (25), which is 91.4 percent of the state's 3,269. It shares a land border with North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. South Dakota held 23 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Minnehaha County has 2,930 warehousing jobs, 89.6 percent of South Dakota's 3,269, the most in the state.
• Pennington County has 33 warehousing jobs, 1.0 percent of South Dakota's 3,269, 2,897 fewer than Minnehaha County.
• Union County has 25 warehousing jobs, 0.8 percent of South Dakota's 3,269, 2,905 fewer than Minnehaha County.
• Meat and poultry processing employs 6,460 people in South Dakota, 1.98 for every warehousing job.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 1,510 people in South Dakota, 0.46 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 10,866 people in South Dakota, 3.32 for every warehousing job.
• South Dakota holds 0.17 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 588, spread over 42 establishments averaging 78 jobs each.
• Sioux Falls accounts for 2,930 warehousing jobs, 89.6 percent of South Dakota's.
• North Dakota has 1,438 warehousing jobs, 0.44 times the 3,269 in South Dakota.
• Minnesota has 17,921 warehousing jobs, 5.48 times the 3,269 in South Dakota.
• Iowa has 19,824 warehousing jobs, 6.06 times the 3,269 in South Dakota.
• Nebraska has 8,246 warehousing jobs, 2.52 times the 3,269 in South Dakota.

Who ships pallets here

In South Dakota, meat and poultry processing employs 6,460. 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 South Dakota is most concentrated, at 4 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 42 warehouse establishments in South Dakota sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 21,000 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 South Dakota with their own page: Sioux Falls.

Words on this page

Edge rack

A rack arrangement where the pallet rests on the edges of the beams. It is the common test case for a racking rating.

Slip sheet

A thin sheet of plastic or fibreboard used under a load in place of a pallet, handled by a push-pull attachment.

Pallet pooling

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

Dock door

The opening where a trailer backs to a building so pallets can be loaded and unloaded.

2-way entry

A pallet that can be lifted from only two opposite sides.

3PL

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

Gross cubic feet

The total volume of a refrigerated warehouse. Usable space is smaller once aisles and equipment are subtracted.

Intermodal

Freight that changes between truck, rail and ship in the same container.

QCEW

The Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, a Bureau of Labor Statistics count of jobs and establishments taken from unemployment insurance records.