Page 24 - Port of Baltimore Magazine July August 2011

[22] The Port of Baltimore ■ July/August 2011 To subscribe or renew, visitwww.marylandports.com
Cargo
nd you thought you were busy?
At the Costco Depot, about an
hour’s drive west of Baltimore,
more than a hundred trucks roll
in on a typical day, carrying
goods that are unloaded, palletized, secured
and shipped right back out to 29 regional
Costco warehouses, ready for purchase.
“We had 140 trucks inbound yesterday
on the dry side,” Depot Manager Jennifer
Cerrito said on a recent June day. (Costco
divides the warehouse into a 160,000-square-
foot “dry” side and 134,000-square-foot
“wet,” or refrigerated, space.)
The depot opened in Monrovia in
January 2010 and sits on 86 acres, giving
the company room to expand. The location
was chosen because freight costs are one of
their biggest expenses, and 21 warehouses
— the term the company uses for its whole-
sale clubs — fall within 100 air miles of the
new distribution center. But the proxim-
ity to the Port of Baltimore also influenced
the decision. “That was definitely a factor,”
Cerrito said. “Obviously, we get a lot of
freight in from the Port, too.”
Some 40 to 50 containers a week
arrive at the depot from the Port, but those
numbers jump up depending on the time of
year. For example, after the Fourth of July,
displays of seasonal items are replaced.
Thus, two ships arrived in late June, carrying
nearly 250 containers between them. That
cargo — mostly furniture — was loaded
onto trucks bound for the depot, where it
Costco’s
Port is Part of
Wholesale Club’s
Precise Supply Chain
Dynamic Depot
BY NANCY MENEFEE JACKSON
COURTESY OF COSTCO