Remember how I recently discovered that all retailers of grocery products in Stuttgart source their fruits and vegetables from the same hub? Sounds like a fascinating place, right? I took a trip over to see for myself.
The Grossmarkt Stuttgart services not only Stuttgart but also a radius of 300km around Stuttgart too, feeding around 12 million people in the region. Only food businesses with a permit are allowed to shop there. The prices are low, and everything is sold in bulk. It’s a gigantic wholesale grocery store just for the middlemen.
The Grossmarkt opens at 2:30am every morning. It’s packed with trucks, people, and pallets piled high with food. I went by foot, and I could barely navigate the crammed, narrow alleys.
Never seen so much cabbage! 
Flower distributors
It’s almost like a small village lined with warehouses. Each of the warehouses carries a different type of product, usually either vegetables, fruit, or flowers, but sometimes meat or specialty items as well. Space within the warehouses is rented to individual distributors, and these distributors sell food from farms located all over the world.
I have so many questions about the food supply chain! I’ll keep you posted on my findings.