Inside Newegg NJ: A New Warehouse and Another Contest
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 20, 2008 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
For years I'd been visiting Newegg's facilities and I'd always commented, especially in the early days, on how I'd really wanted to take pictures of the facilities and do an article on them. Back when Newegg was much younger, a good portion of its success was due to the efficiencies of its warehouse in filling orders. As many companies in our industry tend to be, Newegg was quite shy and wouldn't let me so much as take a picture the first couple of times I visited them.
Finally in 2006, they opened up to the idea of documenting one of their warehouses. Armed with camera and notepad I toured Newegg's facilitiy in Los Angeles just around the time that it opened its first warehouse servicing the east coast in Tennessee. Fast forward to 2008 and Newegg had just recently unveiled its second east coast facility, this time in New Jersey.
With revenues well over $1B a year, Newegg is no longer the seemingly small operation it once was and the company is much less shy. While the brains behind the original warehouse design has since left the company, the New Jersey facility is an improved, more up-to-date version of what I saw back in LA in 2006.
There are far fewer actual people at the warehouse now thanks to even further automation and, yes, the goal is still to get your order to you within two days of leaving the facility regardless of shipping method. That's actually the whole purpose of building the NJ facility, so that customers on the east coast can actually get their orders within that two day target - even with ground shipping.
For those of you who remember the first article, not much has changed - everything i just a lot newer (and the warehouse is a lot quieter too). I told Newegg that if we were going to do another tour we had to do it exactly like last time, which meant that they needed to give away something special to AnandTech readers. The first time Newegg let me tour their facilities and setup a giveaway it was a very kind gesture, now it has become tradition. I'll get to exactly what you get to win and how in a little bit.
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GTaudiophile - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I live in DC. No contest for me :(I would love to see Newegg, a company that leads in so many ways, take a leadership role in terms of making their business more "green" friendly.
Add some solar panels to the roof of that warehouse, try to generate as much of their own power as possible.
Use eco-friendly packaging. Recycle as much as possible.
Encourage FedEx/UPS/USPS to pickup packages in natural gas vehicles.
Add some plants to the interior of the warehouse (the Ferrari factory has this).
Encourages their OEM partners to use more recyclable packaging.
What about use some Ecoflex Plastics from BASF?
Offer incentives/product discounts to employees who commute by bike or public transportation.
The list goes on and on. And every little bit helps.
Kendokan - Sunday, May 25, 2008 - link
A very low margin/very high volume business is not the ideal place to be a leader in environmental issues.Zoomer - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
You're going about this the wrong way.Add some plants and water features of the warehouse! Having good feng shui will ensure that Newegg grows and grows!
shaggy77 - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Hi,Nice little write up on the Newegg operations in NJ. I never knew what a warehouse looked like inside after years of working in them! :p Still a nice piece showing the folks how the order is processed and be to appreciate the work and tech that comes with your order. Most of my time in warehouses everything was hand picked and counted. The only computer was the UPS machine for ship outs. I have never had a problem with Newegg when it came to my orders. I love using them. However what kills me is the sales tax since I am in New Jersey. 7% can be a deal killer for me when something I want to purchase is the same price as the egg. I would wait an extra day or two for the shipment on orders costing more than several hundred dollars. Also we have a Micro Center in the northern half of the state. That store is in an Urban Enterprise Zone so sales tax is 3.5%. As of late, several of my dollars have been there since MC has had better deals than NE plus with same day service and lower sales tax paid. Just like everyone else I paid my fair share of sales tax I would like to have a bit of relief from those taxes when I buy over the net.
Anonymous Freak - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
While the standard 'foam' peanuts are made of polystyrene or polyurethane, they can be made of recycle plastic; and they are eminently reusable and recyclable. (i.e. they can be reused many times, and when they have deteriorated enough to no longer be usable, they can be recycled into plastic devices.But for true environmental friendliness, some companies make packing peanuts that are made of sorghum or corn starch, both plant products that are 100% environmentally-friendly and biodegradable. The mail-order electronics company Crutchfield uses biodegradable packing peanuts. (I just put them in my compost bin, and they had dissolved within two days.)
Frodo - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
New egg suck, I always read anandtech and made a user just to comment on this issue. I am a zipzoomfly buyer, bought there every computer I put and once I was changing my video card and I bought it from New egg becaus it was 20 dolars cheaper than in ZZF, it was and agp card that had a PCIE model too, I read the order 1000 times before hiting the buy button to make sure that i was buying the AGP one and a week later a PCIE card came shipped, after calling and explaining to 1000 persons of NE that the problem was their (they even had the order and it was for a AGP card) they said that if the card wasn't working they would change it for a new one but the sae model that beeing a PCIE. The people in customer support are robots just like the conveyor belts they have. I had to sell the card for much less and buy a card from ZZF. Im never buying again from NE no matter what.Baked - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I got a system that needs a CPU, hope I win something from newegg.Missing Ghost - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I still wish they will sell products to Canada!HotBBQ - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Why can't FL residents enter! Boooooo!!!xscott967 - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Just wish Newegg and the others would do a better job of shipping to AK, HI, APO and FPO addresses (hint-Amazon can do it). For many things the USPS flat rate priority box is soooo much cheaper.