Final Words

There's not much you can conclude about touring a warehouse like Newegg's, there's no buying recommendation, there are no roadmaps to talk about, or upgrade paths to plan out. That being said, there are a couple things that we took away from the experience:

Quite possibly the most impressive part of the tour was the automated setup of the warehouse that Newegg's logistics team lead by VP, Howard Tong designed. Wherever possible the room for human error was minimized or completely removed, and the system itself is constantly learning from the way that Newegg's customers shop to further optimize itself as time goes on. The likelihood of your order getting damaged at Newegg's warehouse is very slim from what we saw, everything is handled very carefully and wrapped very meticulously. As we mentioned earlier, the potential for human error is as minimal as possible; we can only imagine what the Newegg folks would do to their warehouse if they had a few capable robots.

The other very impressive aspect of the tour was exactly how clean the warehouse was. While we wouldn't want to eat off the warehouse floor regardless how clean it was, we were quite impressed at how tidy the whole operation is.


From left to right: Howard Tong (VP), Anand and Ken Lam (Vice Chairman)

Given that the AnandTech readers were some of the most vocal in favor of Newegg in its early days, VP Howard Tong did have some nice things to say for you all:

"As you can see Anand, we put great effort into building a bulletproof infrastructure because we are committed to ensuring our customers have the best service. Sure, you can find smaller companies that may be a dollar or so cheaper, but at Newegg we decided we wanted to give our customer the best experience every time, and that is why we must invest into advanced systems that other companies do not have. We built all this with the customer specifically in mind.

Newegg has never before given the public this kind of exclusive look into its internal business proceses. At Newegg we have always loved the AnandTech reader. These are people whose deep love and understanding of technology help drive its innovation and advancement. In appreciation for this passion we will always do our best to give our tech customers the best selection, prices and service."

We hope this tour has been enjoyable and we'd like to thank Newegg for giving us the opportunity to present you with it. Now head on over to the entry form and try to win those Athlon 64 X2 4600s.

Shipping and the UPS/FedEx Debate
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  • Postoasted - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    First off great article. Have never bought from Newegg before, but after reading about it here I feel assured that they're not some fly-by-night chop shop. As a potential customer the fact that my package will come with peanut styrofoam is a big negative. But if the price is right I guess I can live with it.
  • allometry - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    I'm not sure if NewEgg is using the biodegradable peanuts made from a corn starch base. When you finally do place an order, grab one of those peanuts and run it under some water to see if it disapears.
  • plonk420 - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    have you a solution as versitile as peanuts? i sure don't
  • plonk420 - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    how soon until they pay off the setup and their prices can go down to what they were when they first started? i miss those days...
  • lsman - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    Not when they are expanding to like China and rest and have to pay for those. :D
  • shabby - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    Looks like a basement operation to me, they sure fooled me....
  • Zebo - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    Always like to read about orgins. Maybe next time. I've never had a complaint with newegg but there are others "just as good" and cheaper too such as Mwave.com Zipzoomfly.com for example. What really sets newegg apart is thier fantastic database for customers to search for exactly the prodcuts they are looking for and once found get a set of wonderful 360 degree pictures of the product! Great job!
  • Hondaman4ever - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    This is a good article for those Industrial Engineers, pretty interesting facility layout.
  • JumpyBL - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    Wow, great article. I used to do recieving work and Newegg's setup really makes me want to work there, looks fun, scanning in all the new products and handling tech stuff all day. Looking at all the CPU and memory products laying about is enough to give any tech enthusiast a stiff one. Thanks for the article and the contest Anandtech.
  • thatsright - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    GREAT Article!!

    One of those rare AT article that held my attention 100%, and I read EVERY page.

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