perishables

Don't buy too many ingredients at once, especially perishables.

Initially the impact may be relatively minor and even unnoticeable to most consumers, with products like European wine and perishables like bananas costing more, said Jason Miller, a supply chain management expert at Michigan State University.

“The nearest station is 50km away. We’ll have to first send the produce to the station, then unload it and load it onto the train again. It’s too much handling. With perishables you have to try and minimise that,” Mr Shah said.

Rise struggled to compete with national chains on pricing and then faced additional challenges when a walk-in cooler broke a few months later, making it impossible to keep perishables on the shelves between orders.

Unlike other airlines, he said, Southwest does not stock perishables on board and rarely uses air-conditioned catering trucks.