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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zshift - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Man, I was so hyped by that article and then reading about the sweepstakes. Then I read that Florida is exempt from the contest.... My heart has grown a small crack in it today.neon - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
... it opened its first warehouse on the east coast in Tennessee.A slight correction - Tennessee is on the west coast of the Mississippi R.
NINaudio - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
to correct your "correction", the western border of Tennessee is the eastern shore of the Mississippe River. Tennessee is also directly west of North Carolina, which is an eastern coastal state..Not really sure where you get your maps from. =p
johnsonx - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Presumably he's being tongue-in-cheek, as in suggesting that anything west of the mississippi doesn't really matter, so therefore Tennessee IS the 'west coast'.As 'true' west coaster, I can assure him that in actual fact, nothing east of the rockies really matters.
Matt Campbell - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I can only see about 25 in the picture, but the numbers on the doors go up to 62. Even 25 lanes with multiple shipments per day is impressive!AmberClad - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I don't think all of those are for outbound customer order shipments...some of those might be for trucks carrying products into the warehouse.esandrs - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I just want NewEgg to get their B2B / Purchase Order system back up and running so I can give them my company's money, too!They're still the easiest vendor for me to purchase from, but without PO's I'm stuck ordering much of my hardware elsewhere [sniff].
johnsonx - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Actually I found their B2B system to be quite a headache to use, since it wasn't integrated with the regular order system; either had to call the rep, or put the products in a wish list, flag it shared, and then e-mail the list to the rep. I was glad to have it though, while it lasted. My rep almost always either waived shipping, or just charged $20 on an order that would have been upwards of $60 shipping.I wonder what happened to all the B2B reps? Canned? I e-mailed my rep within minutes of getting the notice that they were shutting down the department, and I never got an answer.
esandrs - Thursday, May 29, 2008 - link
Yeah, the "old" B2B wasn't the easiest, but [sadly!] it was still better than most my other options. I didn't find the Wish List -> Email route too horrible.FYI, yes, nearly all the B2B reps were "let go". I only know because our rep was one of the few retained (and assigned different duties).
I don't vividly recall what was all in the public announcement and what we learned via email, but the "new and improved" B2B model was targeted to go online Q3 2008...
donkeycrock - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
I second that, i love newegg, but the fact that they dont do business accounts makes me wonder. WTF are you insanely stupid.