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The US City That Is One Day’s Drive From, Well, Everyone
You’ll never guess what it is
Today, millions of Americans click on items from their phone, often at night, and expect it to arrive at their front doors within a day or two. The rise in overnight and two day shipping has swept across middle class America, especially in the wake of a pandemic that kept many people inside for the past year. To some, this happens as if by magic. To others, they simply see the same Amazon van they always see zipping around their neighborhood. In reality, the ability for millions of goods to be shipped within twenty four hours is possible due to some savvy map hunting and a lot of infrastructure.
When you click one day shipping, the order goes out to a distribution center that can fill the order, it has to be picked, labelled, boxed and put on a truck before being sent to you. Most of the time, this requires at least one leg of over the road trucking before making it onto the iconic vans seen almost everywhere. That is a lot of effort, and a lot of miles, being racked up by our desire for quick goods. One city is uniquely situated to handle our growing need for cheap stuff now.
That city is Dayton, Ohio.
Dayton, Ohio is not a place many people think about today despite once being one of the most booming business towns in…