Thirty-some years ago, unwanted or unsold products often ended their all-too-brief lives by being dumped in landfills. Today they are the basis of what professor of supply chain management Dale Rogers calls a growing slice of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product: secondary markets.

The recent surge of migrants from the war-torn North African coast and the devastating earthquake in Nepal has focused international attention on the needs of refugees and disaster victims.

Do you remember “You’ve Got Mail”? In the 1998 hit movie, the Internet enables romance to flower between Tom Hanks, who played a big box bookstore owner, and Meg Ryan, an independent bookstore owner. Ironically, that same Internet has now clobbered big box bookstores.

Hospitals have long been notorious for their sluggish, antiquated supply chain management. But today, under intense pressure to cut costs while maintaining high-quality care, some are trying a new model — the consolidated service center.