Where will my order ship from?

Your order may ship from several locations. To make our free shipping option more attractive, we ship from the warehouse closest to you that has stock. While this does not change shipping times for locations in the Eastern US, it reduces them by up to 50% in some areas of the western US.

However, your order may ship from a different location for additional reasons, such as:

• Custom orders (these are “made to order”)
• Manufacturer policy (special handling, etc.)
• Our warehouse is out of stock, but another is not

Our 24-48 hour processing time applies regardless of the shipping location.

Understanding our new in-stock messages

We’ve changed our in-stock messages to provide greater clarity on where your order will ship from and expected processing times. Instead of “In stock,” items ready to ship also list the shipping locations and the processing times. For custom or made-to-order products, you’ll see “Custom Order” along with the production and shipping times.

While the “In stock,” “out of stock,” and “backordered” statuses remain, they now provide additional information beyond stock availability.

Important information on Custom Orders and Orders with Variations

Due to the number of variations of some items in our catalog, it is physically impossible to carry every possible variation that customers order. In most cases, the manufacturer prefers to review these types of orders to ensure completeness and accuracy and ship direct by policy. This may slightly extend the processing time over ordering a base model, which is always stocked.

What items must ship from a specific location?

Select items in our catalog are what we refer to as “special order.” If you see this tag on a product page, it indicates that the product is made available to us only through the manufacturer. Simplifying this, most large manufacturers use a distribution system to deliver products to resellers (us), freeing up their people for customer support. However, for various reasons, manufacturers may want to ship an item directly to a customer, typically to avoid common customer service issues such as damage or setup problems.

The following products in our catalog will always or most likely ship from a single location, and the reason:

• Any Davis special order: Always ships from Davis’ warehouse in Hayward, CA (manufacturer policy)
• Climalytic Snow Board: Always ships from Climalytic’s warehouse in Timnath, CO (size, damage concerns)
• World’s Coolest Rain Gauge Co. and SmartLab: Always ships from our warehouse in Reading, PA (new brands, smaller catalog)
• Maximum Weather Instruments: Generally ships from Maximum’s warehouse in Natick, MA (order accuracy, high amount of customization)

This list is currently complete, but may change from time to time as our product catalog and reseller agreements change.

How do you choose where to ship from when my order is available from multiple locations?

Distance from the warehouse is the primary factor when a customer selects the free shipping method; however, for expedited date-specific options, we’ll typically ship from the location with the most stock.

Do you have the product to sell, since it’s in a different warehouse?

YES. We manage inventory for any location we use. If you see the message “in stock,” it’s ready to ship. This strategy is only to compete with our larger competitors, some of which have been around for nearly two decades. It’s also how some of the larger e-commerce brands ship to you so quickly and for free: inventory is spread out.

It wouldn’t be possible if everything came out of a single warehouse: We illustrate the difference below.

Does it really make a difference?

Because of our location close to I-95 and major ground shipping routes, those on the East Coast will notice little difference: we can deliver to these locations in 3 days or less. But as you move west, and especially west of the Mississippi, the differences become pretty significant.

Take Climalytic, for example. If you ordered a Snow Ruler in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, using free shipping, it would take us at least a week to get it to you. However, since we’d instead direct your order to Climalytic itself, you’d get it at least four days faster using the same delivery method! We’ll always obviously want to clear our stock first, but if there’s a way to get your order to you faster, we’ll take that option. We think our customers would expect us to do the same.

How about your apparel?

Apparel is handled differently from the rest of our catalog and printed to order. You can learn more about that here.