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
How a Bill Becomes a L...err, How an Order Becomes a Tote
If Newegg's warehouse had a pulse it'd be a scary thing, as the system is unbelievably self-aware. The warehouse holds around 20,000 unique products and it is aware of the location and quantities of each and every one of them.
This tote is someone's order, I didn't tinker with it
Totes galore
There are tons of red totes that are constantly traveling through the warehouse on automated conveyor belts. They will keep circling until one of them is needed. When an order comes in from the website and is cleared for processing it is assigned to a tote; the order and the tote are married and are only separated once the order is boxed and ready to be shipped.
The totes run by these barcode scanners constantly, they monitor the contents of the tote and the order, if the order isn't complete it keeps getting routed through the warehouse until every last item is in there.
The tote is routed to various locations in the warehouse and filled by hand before being sent back out the conveyor system. The actual filling of the tote is done manually, but tracking the tote and deciding where it has to go is entirely automated. The warehouse knows where to send the totes and it can even detect traffic jams and slow totes down if need be.
Speedy totes
The entire system is optimized so that if the product is in stock in the warehouse closest to you, and your order is placed by 2PM EST, it will ship out that same day. Thanks to careful placement of these warehouses, you should be able to get what you ordered within a couple of days without having to pay for more expensive shipping. It's good to see that Newegg's goal of optimizing for ground shipping is still top priority.
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Kendokan - Sunday, May 25, 2008 - link
With their business model, they're smart not to take corporate POs as payment. Most companies stretch the payment terms like crazy. Net 30? You might get your money in 60 days. Net 60? Try 90. It's hell on cash flow.Jaguar36 - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Newegg has shipped stuff from NJ for years, from Edison NJ to be specific. I first started buying from them because I could get stuff shipped ground and it would show up the next day. Of course now they have there '3-day' shipping which takes 3-days even when its only going 50 miles, and costs 50% more!Basilisk - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - link
Yes, for years NJ has had the quick deliver and the NJ taxes directly added to the bill. [Of course, we all add up those untaxed, out-of-state purchases and report them on our NJ-1040's, right?!]Over the years, they've cut their delivery time from two days to one; or perhaps I'm just ordering earlier in the day? Anyway, yesterday's video-card order at 1PM is en route today... but it's STILL NOT HERE as of 10am! :P LOL
gigahertz20 - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Seems like a very efficient system, I've always received my order within 2 days living here in State College, PA. Good prices, fast shipping, an easy to use website that has tons of search options, and also allowing users to leave reviews of the products they buy is what makes Newegg #1 in my book.PCHAngover - Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - link
Yep I always get mine within 2 days. Usually it's only a day because newegg is a Ninja. If anything, I blame the commons staffing if I don't get it in time. ;)gipper - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
It seems to have slowed down lately for me. I live in STL, MO, and it was about 3 days from ordering. More recently, it's been more like a week.It's still great service, and the prices are unbeatable. I just have to plan a little further ahead these days.
KikassAssassin - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Strange. I live in Illinois, about 15 minutes from St. Louis, and they always get my orders to me in 2-3 days (usually 2). I've never had to wait anywhere close to a week.BigLan - Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - link
Hopefully I'll be the lucky one!I couldn't help notice the 'slow moving parts' picture at the bottom of page 2. They look like 6800's, and won't be going anywhere for a while as the product is deactivated on the newegg site.