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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Screammit - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - link
When I was in the navy and sitting off the coast of Chile, a buddy fried a motherboard (don't ask why our desktops were on the ship :P ) and ordered one from newegg, they had it to us in a week. I was impressed enough to give them my business ever since.Aolish - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
This is definitely one of the best tours I've seen. Neweggs facility looks extremely efficient and clean. I'm just really disappointed that the contest doesn't apply to NY. To bad they didn't explain why. :(Yongsta - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I remember my first purchase from Newegg in 2001 or so... it was an AMD Duron, I've never heard of the company before but I took a chance because a lot of positive feedback on the forums. I've spent about $40k there over the years (mostly builds for friends & family) and it's great to see how they've grown over the years.Yongsta - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Good article but I think it's facility. ;)Yongsta - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
nm looks like it's fixed now.vijay333 - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
"In Florida, New York and Rhode Island sponsors are required to register all sweepstakes where the total retail value of all the prizes is greater than $5,000. Florida and New York require the sponsor to bond the sweepstakes equal to the total value of the prizes. Once the winners are announced, a winners’ list must be provided to the state(s) in order to release the bond."AmberClad - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
What is it with NY being so anal about these types of things. As if the Amazon tax wasn't enough. Added to my list of states to never move to, along with CA (with all the stuff I buy from eTailers, that state sales tax would hit me pretty hard...).BernardP - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Seeing this huge warehouse with all the available inventory and the way everything is automated, I realize I should give up hope for Newegg in Canada. Canada's population (30 M) is less than California (36 M), the most populous US state. Not enough economies of scale in Canada.chizow - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Only missing from the pics is Anand running through the isles with Geoffrey singing the Toys R Us theme song. Ok maybe not, but thats what the tour reminded me of, those Toys R Us shopping spree commercials from years ago.But ya the Edison warehouse has been great. I think I started getting shipments from there 6-12 months ago. Its much better than the Tennessee warehouse in terms of shipping speed and product selection. I remember there was still a pretty good chance of getting a shipment out of a CA warehouse due to limited stock in TN, but now everything, even more obscure items come out of NJ for me.
IcePickFreak - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I had visions of those Toys R Us commercials as well. When I die, I wanna go to a Newegg warehouse.Enjoyable read, I often wonder how they ship so fast even now when they've made the 'big-time' so-to-speak and ship even more stuff. My only gripe was when they switched from Fed-ex to UPS as their preferred carrier. I've worked at both places before and know what goes on behind the scenes at each, and have had some shady dealings with UPS as a customer.