Plastic bulk containers in Salinas

The Salinas Valley in Monterey County grows lettuce, leafy greens, broccoli, strawberries and other vegetables, and its warehouses are packing and cooling sheds rather than distribution centres. Grocery wholesale had 2,256 jobs in 2025 and beverage manufacturing 937, mostly wine from the valley's vineyards, where beverage manufacturing runs at 2.4 times its national share.

Vegetables are field-packed or brought in to be cooled within hours of harvest, so bins here are washed often and move fast. Solid-wall bins suit wet produce and washing; vented bins suit crops that need to cool. Wine grapes from Monterey County go into solid bins that hold juice.

Warehousing as BLS counts it is small here, 298 jobs. The warehousing ZIPs are Salinas 93901 and Castroville 95012.

The Salinas Valley is called the salad bowl of the world for its lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens, harvested nearly year-round in the cool fog of the Monterey Bay. Greens are cut and packed in the field or rushed to vacuum coolers, so bins have to be clean, often food-grade, and quick to hose down. Strawberries grow around Watsonville, just to the north. Through winter, much of the valley's harvest moves south to Yuma and the Imperial Valley, and some growers move bins with it.

Highway 101 carries the valley's produce north and south.

Salinas buyers are lettuce, spinach and strawberry shippers wanting clean, washable bins and vented bins that let cooled air reach greens quickly after harvest.

Field crews cut and pack heads of lettuce directly into cartons, but whole-leaf and baby greens for bagged salads come off in bulk bins and go straight to processors in Salinas and Gonzales. Those bins are washed and sanitised between loads, so smooth walls and drain holes matter more than strength. Broccoli and cauliflower, iced after cutting, need bins that drain melt water.