Rambling warehouses whose mysterious contents were a tightly kept secret of the storeman and his acolytes are fortunately a thing of the past. Modern single storey warehouses now sprawl across the landscape at every strategically situated motorway intersection. Yet there is much more to designing a warehouse than simply choosing the best site or installing fork‐lift trucks. In this article Brian McKibbin focuses attention on some of the neglected areas of physical distribution where further economics may still be made. The article is based on a paper presented by Mr McKibbin at the “New Environment Conference on Physical Distribution” organised by the Warrington New Town Development Corporation recently.