Testing GORUCK’s New Distribution Center

GORUCK recently moved their distribution operation from Seattle to Kentucky. The move was a business decision that should free GORUCK up to focus on gear and events. You can read all about it on their blog.

Part of the move was to place distribution in a more central location and thus improve shipping times and service (especially to us on the Right Coast). Jason, at the end of his blog post, encouraged us to give it a try. So, I did.

For some insane reason, GORUCK didn’t give me a free t-shirt at the end of my last race. So, I decided dropped the coin for a sweet GORUCK Heavy shirt to celebrate my recent 9/11 DC Heavy.

Below I have documented the transaction times for my shirt order, which went through Newgistics. Along with that order, I have posted a previous order that went through GORUCK.

Newgistics 
Order: GORUCK Heavy T-Shirt
Order Confirmation: Monday, September 19, 4:19 PM
Shipment Notification: Tuesday, September 20, 3:52 PM
Shipment Departure: Wednesday, September 21, 2:10 AM
Package Arrival: Tuesday, September 27, 2:00 +/- PM

GORUCK 
Order: Sturnum Strap, Tac Hat, Bladder Hose Retainer
Order Confirmation: Friday, June 3, 10:45 AM
Shipment Notification: Monday, June 6, 4:39 PM
Shipment Departure: Monday, June 6, 11:22 PM
Package Arrival: Wednesday, June 8, 2:43 PM

Observations

My order that was shipped from GORUCK was made on a Friday, so I understand it taking till Monday to ship. But, it was shipped immediately on Monday and made it across the country and to my door in 2 days.

The order shipping through Newgistics didn’t ship until 2 weekdays from the order. Then took another 6 to go from KY to VA.

I paid $5 for shipping. Priority mail via USPS with 2 day shipping is $6.80.

Conclusion

Holy cow! It took 8 days to get a t-shirt. EIGHT DAYS!

This is a one-off test, so I don’t know if one can draw any significant conclusions. But, a side-by-side comparison shows Newgistics really blowing it on my first experience with them.

In a day and age where free 2 day shipping is becoming the norm, paying $5 to wait over a week to get a t-shirt is a hard pill to swallow.

Obviously goruck.com is the only place to get GORUCK gear, so Jason and the crew don’t have to worry about me going to another store to buy the product. However, from a user experience, it does not motivate me to go shopping on goruck.com knowing that whatever I order is going to take over a week to get to me. In fact, it probably discourages me from making impulse buys because I know that the satisfaction of the purchase won’t be realized for a week.

The move to Newgistics was supposed to decrease shipping times to those of us not located near Washington. That does not seem to be the case. In fact, quite the opposite.

But, Jason and the GORUCK crew are awesome. They listen to their customers and they seek to do right by people. So, I’m sure they will continually assess this new relationship and HOPEFULLY we’ll see some improvements.

I guess I’ll get a chance to see this coming holiday season when I anticipate placing my next order.