Retail Stockroom Mobile Shelving Case Study: Salt Lake City, Utah

How Deseret Book added mechanical mobile shelving for retail stockroom storage at its Salt Lake City flagship store.

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Front-facing mobile shelving carriage ends with handwheels in a retail bookstore stockroom

Customer

Deseret Book

Location

45 West South Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Product

Mechanical mobile shelving, ten shelf levels, twin ramp with anti-tip rail

Application

Retail stockroom storage

About the project

Deseret Book’s flagship Salt Lake City store needed a compact, organized way to hold retail inventory behind the sales floor, without dedicating a large stockroom footprint to static shelving aisles.

Material Handling USA supplied a mechanical mobile shelving system built to ten shelf levels with a particle board deck, installed on a twin ramp with anti-tip rail so no sub-floor construction was needed. The project was completed in two phases a day apart as the store’s stockroom needs grew, with delivery running about three to four weeks each time.

Project scope at a glance

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Ten shelf levels per section

Tall sections built for stacked boxes of books and retail inventory rather than letter-size filing, maximizing storage density.

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Particle board deck

A solid particle board deck on each shelf gives stacked cartons a stable, level surface.

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Twin ramp with anti-tip rail

The twin ramp approach eliminated the need for a sub-floor, and an anti-tip rail adds stability at the ramp edge.

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Mechanical handwheel drive

Carriages move on a three-spoke handwheel, giving stockroom staff quiet, low-effort access to any aisle.

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Two-phase order

The system was ordered in two back-to-back phases as the store’s stockroom capacity needs became clearer.

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Freight included

Freight and delivery were included with both phases of the order.

The situation

A busy retail store’s stockroom has to hold enough inventory to keep the sales floor stocked without becoming a maze of static shelving aisles that eat into space needed for receiving, staging and restocking carts. Books and retail cartons also stack differently than office files, favoring tall, open shelf sections over shallow filing shelves.

Mobile shelving solved both problems: keeping every aisle closed except the one in use freed floor space for staging, and ten shelf levels per section gave the store considerably more vertical storage than static shelving of the same footprint.

Stacked boxes of books and retail inventory cartons on a mobile shelving shelf in a retail bookstore stockroom

What Material Handling USA supplied

The system Material Handling USA installed for Deseret Book uses mechanical handwheel-driven carriages built to ten shelf levels per section, with a particle board deck on each shelf for stable carton storage. It was installed on a twin ramp with an anti-tip rail rather than a sub-floor, keeping the stockroom at grade for restocking cart traffic.

The order was placed in two phases roughly a day apart, a common pattern when a retailer is finalizing exactly how much stockroom capacity a location needs.

System layout

The layout drawing below shows the system as installed: mechanical mobile shelving carriages on floor rail, sized to the store’s stockroom. Dimensions and the exact aisle count are specific to this room and are shown for illustration of how a mobile shelving system is planned before it is built.

Mobile shelving layout drawing for a retail bookstore stockroom, Salt Lake City Utah

What the store gained

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More inventory storage in less space

Mobile shelving let the stockroom hold significantly more boxed inventory without expanding the room.

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Storage built for cartons, not files

Ten shelf levels and a solid deck suit stacked retail cartons better than shallow static shelving would.

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Faster restocking

Freeing floor space for staging and cart access made restocking the sales floor more efficient.

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No sub-floor construction

The twin ramp with anti-tip rail kept the room at grade, which shortened the installation.

Choosing mobile shelving for a retail stockroom

	Static shelving aisles	Mechanical mobile shelving
Floor space per unit of storage	One aisle open per row, all the time	One aisle open at a time, on demand
Carton height handled	Depends on fixed shelf spacing	Ten shelf levels suit tall stacked cartons well
Access speed	Immediate, every aisle	One handwheel turn to open the needed aisle
Best fit	Small stockrooms with light inventory	A flagship store holding significant back-of-house inventory
Expansion	Requires new floor area	Can be ordered in phases, as this project was

Mobile shelving sales and service across Utah

Material Handling USA is based in Salt Lake City and works with retailers throughout Utah on stockroom and back-of-house storage. Retail businesses can add mobile shelving to increase stockroom capacity without expanding their footprint.

Call (801) 328-8788 to have a retail stockroom measured for mobile shelving.

Frequently asked questions

Is mobile shelving a good fit for a retail stockroom?

Yes. Mechanical mobile shelving works well for boxed retail inventory that needs to be dense and organized but does not require constant simultaneous access from multiple staff.

Does mobile shelving need a raised floor?

Not always. This project used a twin ramp with anti-tip rail specifically to avoid a sub-floor, keeping the stockroom at grade.

Can a mobile shelving order be placed in phases?

Yes, as on this project, which was ordered in two phases as the store’s exact stockroom capacity needs became clear.

How many shelf levels does a retail stockroom system typically use?

This system used ten shelf levels per section, taller than a typical filing configuration, to maximize storage density for boxed inventory.

How long does installation take?

This project’s delivery ran about three to four weeks per phase, typical for a mechanical mobile shelving system of this size.

Can a retail stockroom system be sized for future growth?

Yes. Ordering in phases, as this project did, lets a retailer add capacity as its actual stockroom needs become clear rather than over-ordering up front.

Does mobile shelving work with a receiving and staging area?

Yes. Keeping most aisles closed frees floor space near the shelving system for staging incoming and outgoing inventory.

Need more stockroom capacity for your retail store?

Send us your stockroom dimensions and what you store, and we will lay out a mobile shelving system that maximizes usable capacity. Utah installs and service from our Salt Lake City base.

Request a Quote Call (801) 328-8788