Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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Hey everyone, just a small announcement to spice up your day.
While I still contend that 2 warehouses are better than 1, many of our customers (and would be customers) and many of our accountants agree that:
Having a second warehouse has not been worth the trouble!
So we will be winding down operations in our Spokane Valley, WA, warehouse, which means that our permanent location will be Toledo, OH.
If you want the full story, keep reading.
Last year when we came up with the idea to open a warehouse in the east, it was because we knew we would be closer to a larger percentage of the population. Not only that, but we would be closer to distribution channels, which would mean quicker access to new release, something that has been difficult at best being in the Northwest.
At that point we had a decision to make: do we *move* to the east, or do we just open up a second location? We decided that it was at least worthwhile starting it as a second location and seeing how it goes. It took a lot of work to get the website working with 2 locations, but we were finally ready.
When we launched the updated site and opened the second location, we received a less-than-stellar report card from many customers due to the fact that we could not ship from both locations for the same low price as one (Amazon does it!). I believe I was able to explain the situation well enough to our existing customers and some new ones, but the logic doesn't seem to outweigh the emotion. Seeing items in your cart that you cannot purchase, for any reason, is never something customers will be happy about.
So to make things simpler and more satisfying for our customers, and simpler for us, we have decided to keep the operation in Toledo, OH and stop operating out of Spokane Valley, WA. The reasons we are keeping the Toledo location are the multi-year lease on the building, and the fact that we are closer to our publishers and distributors. There's also the fact that Rick and Racheal rock and have been doing a fantastic job in Toledo!
We realize this will increase delivery times by a day or two for the west coast, but for new releases, they are likely to get their orders even quicker than before!
So in a nutshell, we decided to open a warehouse in Toledo to get new releases faster, and to reach more of the US population quicker. We tried to make it work with 2 warehouses, but it's been less than satisfying for everyone, so we will be closing the Spokane Valley warehouse over the coming months.
Feel free to post questions and I'll do my best to answer them 
Thanks,
Tom
Boards & Bits
www.boardsandbits.com
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Greg Williams
United States
Portland
Oregon
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I will miss the quick turnaround on shipments out of Spokane, but I have been jealous of the earlier arrival of games in Ohio. You guys rock, I expect you'll still get most of my online business.
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Scott
United States
Ham Lake
MN
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When does the WA 80% off sale begin?
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Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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fargus9 wrote: I will miss the quick turnaround on shipments out of Spokane, but I have been jealous of the earlier arrival of games in Ohio. You guys rock, I expect you'll still get most of my online business.
Thanks, Greg. It was a difficult decision, but we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't feel it was best for just about everyone.
Tom
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Joel Weeks
United States
Roswell
Georgia
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Good news. I had stop ordering from you because of the confusion. And Toledo is closer to me than Spokane.
thanks
Joel
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Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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earlystarts wrote: When does the WA 80% off sale begin?
Fortunately for us, we have another warehouse to move everything to. So no need to mark things down, right?
Tom
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Chris Palermo
United States
Ronkonkoma
New York
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Are *you* moving to the East, as well? How difficult is it to manage the operations some 2000 miles away?
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Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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joelbear wrote: Good news. I had stop ordering from you because of the confusion. And Toledo is closer to me than Spokane.
thanks
Joel
This all started because of you, Joel. I hope you're happy!
And everyone that isn't happy, talk to Joel 
Tom
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Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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Lemur wrote: Are *you* moving to the East, as well? How difficult is it to manage the operations some 2000 miles away?
I don't have any plans to relocate...I'm definitely a westerner (in a non-cowboy sort of way).
As I mentioned, Rick and Racheal are fantastic. I have nothing to worry about!
Tom
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kevin long
United States
Vancouver
Washington
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SAD!! I was heading up to Spokane in another month or so and now i have one less reason to go there! Good luck at the new location and anytime i support internet sales your sitll my first stop! Thanks and hopefully see you at GAMESTORM before you leave us.
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W M Shubert
United States
Portland
Oregon
KGS is the #1 web site for playing go over the internet. Visit now!
Yes, I really am that awesome.
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For me this is a shame. B&B has been my standard order place for three reasons: 1) Great service (quick response to email questions), 2) great prices, and 3) standard surface shipping would get the orders to me in under 24 hours.
I'll probably still order from B&B for a decent amount of my shipments, but the advantage over Thoughthammer just got a lot smaller.
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Bartow Riggs
United States
Antelope
California
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Have to say this is not good news. You guys got almost all my business because it was here two days later in California, sometimes the next day. I dramatically reduced my orders from your competitors (Thought Hammer mostly but some Boulder Games stuff as well) and gave them to your company.
Looks like that is changing.
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Peaceful Gamin'
Canada
Vancouver
BC
It was solitaire with cool cards. Zero interaction
Looking for a playtester/editor/translator for your cool new game? Contact us, we're free (but we ask to be mentioned in the acknowledgements, and a copy of the game would be a nice gesture, but not necessary).
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the beginning of the end? hopefully not!
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Doug Richardson
United States
Gresham
Oregon
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 Say it ain't so, Joe, uh, Tom! 
I will miss the quick delivery time from Spokane to PDX. But its not personal. its business, right?
Looking forward to seeing you at Gamestorm again this year.
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Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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salish99 wrote: the beginning of the end? hopefully not!
Not at all! Things are better than ever.
Which is why it's been so hard to keep inventory levels up. Trying to manage two warehouses with our small workforce is nearly impossible.
With this change we will be able to focus all of our attention on keeping the Toledo warehouse fully stocked.
Tom
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Brandon Richards
United States
Salem
Oregon
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Bad news for those of us here in Oregon. I loved the quick shipping. In fact, I just placed an order a week ago on a Thursday night and it arrived on Saturday morning. I even put up with the couple days of delay on new boardgames just to continue to support B&B.
I wish you the best in the east.
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Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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BartowWing wrote: Have to say this is not good news. You guys got almost all my business because it was here two days later in California, sometimes the next day. I dramatically reduced my orders from your competitors (Thought Hammer mostly but some Boulder Games stuff as well) and gave them to your company.
Looks like that is changing.
I wish I had a good response for you, but everyone has to make their own decisions based on their needs.
I hope we'll give you more than enough other reasons to shop with us to make up for the extra day or two to reach you.
Tom
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Stephen Brewbacker
United States
Long Island
New York
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Holy Toledo!
I'm glad you are going back to the single warehouse model.
Boards and Bits has been my favorite online store for a long time now - and being from NY I never minded the longer shipping times - so Toledo is just 'gravy' to me.
-Stephen
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Robert Stetler
United States
Unspecified
Unspecified
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I order out of California, and the 2 day ship time was great. But looking at a potential order that refused to come together because the pieces were in two different warehouses was simply a pain in the arse. And frankly that killed the deal on more than one occasion.
Obviously expecting B&B to stock twice the inventory to keep both warehouses stocked is ridiculous. That's an exercise in futility, and an eventual recipe for going out of business.
Losing the quick turn around time is a bummer, but given I was rarely able to take advantage of it because I couldn't find all the items I wanted stocked in Washington (or, for that matter, Ohio - problem happened both directions), it’s a moot complaint. Frankly if I wanted the games in hand at the speed of light I wouldn't be going mail order anyway. Sure, if things had consolidated in Washington instead of Ohio things would be more convenient for *me*, but the where they consolidated wasn't as important as the consolidation itself.
Personally I'm looking forward to seeing that B&B either has the items I want in stock or not, and have no problems with a couple extra days delivery time to get that simplicity back. Quick ship is great, but one stop shop is better.
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WAN CHIU
United States
SUNNYVALE
94089
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Any idea how much the increase in shipping cost would be for us in Southern California? Thanks!
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Boards & Bits
United States
Spokane Valley
Washington
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richtoosoon wrote: Say it ain't so, Joe, uh, Tom! I will miss the quick delivery time from Spokane to PDX. But its not personal. its business, right? Looking forward to seeing you at Gamestorm again this year.
Hi Doug. We'll definitely see you at Gamestorm, looking forward to it!
I wish there were a way for us to make everyone happy, there just isn't. We have a lot of east coast customers that put up with long shipping times and higher shipping charges for years, so maybe it's just their turn
We certainly appreciate the support we've had from our west coast customers and hope they continue to find reasons to shop with us.
Tom
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B. Huddleston
United States
Dayton
Ohio
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Tom won't make everyone happy with this change, but since I will be moving to Ohio in a few months this sounds like great news.
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EP Papa
United States
New York
New York
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BrewB wrote: Holy Toledo!
I'm glad you are going back to the single warehouse model.
Boards and Bits has been my favorite online store for a long time now - and being from NY I never minded the longer shipping times - so Toledo is just 'gravy' to me.
-Stephen
Same from me. The shipping can only take less time now, so I expect to order even more!
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Kevin Perry
United States
San Jose
California
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This makes me a little sad. I like in CA, but my roots are in Seattle. I was hoping that I'd be able to enjoy one day shipping when I move back there someday.
Lucky for you, you'll probably still remain my #1 online retailer because of your great prices and selection combined with the fact that shipping from Ohio is still cheaper than most others (on orders over $100). Cost is always more important than speed for me, though I do get pretty impatient too. :-)
Good luck with the move.
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Was George Orwell an Optimist?
Spain
Corvallis
Oregon
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Bummer. I'm another Oregonian who will sorely miss shipping from Spokane.
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