The Picker

Your tote makes its way around the Newegg warehouse via conveyor belt and since the system knows the location of every last product in the warehouse, it can drop off your tote whenever it's near product that you've ordered.

Once the tote arrives, a Newegg staffer will scan the barcode on its side:

Once scanned, lights near the products you've ordered will illuminate telling the employee what and how many items need to be placed inside the tote:


The lower half of the Ok button is illuminated, the display indicates that our tote needs one ASUS P5VD2-VM SE


The rest of the displays remain shut off to help point out what products need to be placed in the tote

Once the system indicates that the tote is full, you simply hit ok and place the tote back on the conveyor belt. The system will continue cycling the tote around the warehouse until the order is complete, at which point it'll be sent off to packing/shipping.

How a Bill Becomes a L...err, How an Order Becomes a Tote The Box Maker
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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.

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