We are growing. Building a new warehouse in the space behind our current location. This is the progress so far:
1st week of July. Just getting the erosion barrier into place and making sure the area is up to code. (Well I am not apparently that is what is happening).
One month later and ready for Concrete. The land was already graded for another warehouse in 2008 (we all know what happened then, no new warehouse is what happened) and the pine trees were just put there for erosion control. Now add concrete……
The large construction equipment is actually parked on where our picnic benches and cookout area will go for the employees and their families. Yes we have to work, but work is such a long part of life. I want it to be a place where we have a 100% retention rate. We have been in business over a decade and we have that. I will be curious why the first person leaves us…. was it my cooking?
And the Steel for the Building arrives before the slab is poured, what incredible timing. Better now than when steel prices increase.
This is what is will end up like. It will be HUGE by Natural Stone industry standards and the “Industry” has absolutely no idea it is coming. They have no real concept of e-commerce and savings it can offer the consumer they are still stuck in the old way of doing things (which is charging people far more than they should pay). This video shows how you can actually make it considerably more affordable for consumers.
Of all the tile and stone retailers you go into they may have one perhaps two loading docks this will have Sixteen. All so we can fill up the UPS drop trailers. UPS Freight can pick up at night when everyone is off the roads. So we are trying to reduce congestion on the roads and let everyone get home quicker. If every business did this it would help all our roads and commutes. It also helps UPS freight as less traffic = less risk of accidents.
For us it allows us to do the job and go home. Not just hang around. Orders are placed we will pack well exceptionally well and ship. But after that and clean up. It is good to leave by 4pm and be with your family.
This is inside one of the UPS trailers you see. These crates are full of shipments that are 300 Square Feet. We pack it enclosed inside a wooden crate lid on and shrink wrap. Once you cut off the lid, you can then lift the 20lbs boxes out. It is designed for the individual boxes to be light and manageable. As a family company (not directly, but they all feel like family, we do not want anyone hurting themselves so there can be nothing too strenuous from a lifting perspective and this is also helpful on the other end).
These are the smaller freight shipments perhaps 100 Square Feet of Basketweave. It would not be safe in a crate. So we ensure the pallet is oversized so the product cannot get knocked on the edges (no one else seems to have figured this out, pallets do knock into each other but if the pallet is 3-6″ bigger then it is the wooden pallet that gets hit not the marble or glass) we shrink wrap and carefully band.
This truck will be fully loaded and we balance it out. Then move onto the next one. The purpose of more loading docks is simply to fill more orders we have more products already.
We have a 250,000 Square Foot Storage Warehouse in Atlanta that feeds this fulfillment center everyday.
At this new location we will have Calacatta Gold in 4×12″. Consumers are asking for it so we will add it to our collection. Calacatta Gold in 3″ Hexagon. This new facility should allow us to get close to the billion dollar mark.
The industry has not worked like this before. Working like this allows us to have product in stock and ship out in 1-2 Business Days. The natural or tile and stone industry has always worked on long lead times making customers wait weeks prior to delivery. Why? Do they take the order then make it? In a lot of cases that is exactly what they are doing. Taking your money and improving their balance sheet, taking huge profits and reducing the value of your investment. (Really annoying).
Our goal is to change the industry by having everything under one roof. Local pick up’s will be able to just drive up into the building. All other orders will ship out at the same speed.
Another point… this is “Our” building. Just ours. We are here to stay. This provides everyone that works here with confidence and our long term customers with confidence. We are a debt free business and will remain that way. Built from a garage almost a seven years ago. To what will be the largest natural stone fulfillment center in the USA. How does this benefit the customer? Debt. Debt is a cost. This cost can only be paid one way…. added to the product sale price. We do not have to add that cost.
Where it started. Months before this picture. Here we were almost two years into the project. With one year of planning. I knew this was the future from Jan 12th 2000, watching the dot.com bubble burst. I had already been trying and playing around with e-commerce since 2000 and had a first trial site up in 2004. I suppose a Beta version for my benefit (which looked terrible). It took a while for technology to catch up. But it did and you can read more about that in a section on News articles.
With Great collections like this Diamond Long Octagon or Picket looking with Nero Marquina Dot. All part of the largest collection of Bianco Carrara in the USA.
Basketweave Classic: 1×2″ with Nero Marquina Dot $11.95 a Square Foot. But now with over forty Basketweave options.
