The Logistics of Grocery Stores

Where in the hell does all that food come from in our grocery stores?  Or to be more specific, how does every grocery store have so many perishable items?  Think about it, if you go in your local grocery store, there are at least a hundred jugs of milk and even more cuts of meat, each of which only last a week or two at most.  Not only does every grocery store have all of these perishable items, but there is no way that all of them are sold.  That's a lot of wasted food/milk.

Now think about how many grocery stores are in your town.  Within 10 miles of my house, I can think of a dozen or so grocery stores, all of which have thousands of perishable items for sale.  And that doesn't even include all of the gas stations that sell perishable stuff.  So, if you include those, those number jumps up even more.

So, where does it all come from?  The milk I can understand a lot more than the meat.  It's not like you can raise a cow to maturity in a week, it takes at least a year, and yet I still find hundreds of cuts of meat in my local grocery store every time I walk in.

I guess my real problem with this question is that I live in a city and there isn't a farm within an hour drive.  If I lived in the middle of the country, I can only assume that there are just miles and miles of farms in every direction.  But from where I live, I honestly don't understand where it all comes from.

"This really seems like the only way to drink all of the milk available in your local grocery store.  However, I know from personally experience, chugging a gallon of milk will only come right back up."