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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  • Kuroyama - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    Since no one was specific about location, seems the link to the contest on "The Secure Area" page wasn't fixed, although the entry later in the article is OK.
  • bigboxes - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    I had to use IE. I'd rather not have to use IE if at all possible.
  • bldckstark - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    I clicked the link in the article, and the advertisement link on the left frame, and both worked just fine for me with FF. The ad opened a new window, the link changed pages. Also I haven't seen it mentioned yet guys, but I bet this article is already linked all over the net.

    Anand and crew, how much is traffic up (or down) over normal since you posted this article?
  • allometry - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    I would check your FF install. I'm using 1.5 and had no issues signing up...
  • Marlin1975 - Tuesday, February 14, 2006 - link

    quote:

    However FedEx Ground isn't as good as UPS ground



    Sorry but what is that based off of??? I have used both for a LONG time between items that were basic small to large items such as engine heads I have ported or crankshafts and can say Fed-Ex ground has never been a problem for me or anybody else i know that ships a good deal. Even in the anandtech forums most swear by Fed-Ex ground way before UPS.

    Also if Fed-Ex ground is the same price as UPS ground then why does Newegg not offer Fed-Ex ground?
  • superkdogg - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    If UPS ground is better, can somebody tell them that my laptop ram that I ordered two weeks ago(!) should be here by now. Not only did the shipment originate in New Jersey and miss Wisconsin instead landing in Phoenix (already late at this point), it was then rescheduled for delivery another 6 days later(!!).

    So far it's been 14 days (counting weekends, so a little slack there). This wouldn't be so bad, but that I'm off work after some surgery and can't sit up long enough to use my desktop. So I'm stuck struggling with my new laptop that I got cheap since it has only 256 MB of ram. Try to play any game with integrated graphics and 256 MB using XP (Home in my case) - ain't pretty. Oh well, allegedly my additional 1 MB is coming sometime soon (unless it inexplicably ends up in Nova Scotia on its way back).
  • superkdogg - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    Oops. Obviously 1 MB wouldn't make much difference. 1 GB would.
  • Cygni - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    Im with you, FedEx Ground blows UPS Ground away in my book. I always fork over the extra couple bones to get FedEx Ground when I blow paychecks on newegg (fairly regularly) after a couple "experiments" when Newegg switched to UPS... Boxes always come quicker, and in much better shape.

    I do like the OPTION of shipping with either, but for my dollar, im going with FedEx.
  • LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    Ditto. I'll choose FedEx Ground over UPS Ground anytime. They've been more gentle on my packages, I've gotten far better customer service too. I'll gladly pay a buck extra per package to get FedEx Ground over UPS Ground.
  • bob661 - Wednesday, February 15, 2006 - link

    Yeah, UPS Ground blows ass.

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