What’s it Cost to Run a Warehouse in Your City?
The Boyd Company has released a useful document on the comparative costs of operating a warehouse or distribution center around the United States, “Comparative Distribution Warehousing Industry Operating Costs”. It takes multiple factors into account and provides an annual operating cost for many cities and regions. The report bases these costs on a hypothetical 175,000 square foot facility with 75 nonexempt workers. This warehouse would ship over-the-road to a national U.S. market.
The factors taken into consideration include:
- Total annual labor costs
- Electric power costs
- Natural gas power costs
- Amortization costs
- Property and sales taxes
- Shipping costs
Some markets of interest and their annual operating costs:
- San Jose, CA (most expensive): $12,064,961
- Sioux Falls, SD (least expensive): $7,417,487
- Chicago, IL $10,351,816
- St. Louis, MO: $8,808,609
- Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX $8,430,605
- Oklahoma City, OK $8,119,512
- Tulsa, OK $8,089,925
Obviously these numbers won’t be an exact fit for every operation, but they can give you a good idea of costs in a given city or state.
Tags: location
Scott Stone is Cisco-Eagle's Vice President of Marketing with more than thirty years of experience in material handling, warehousing and industrial operations. His work is published in multiple industry journals an websites on a variety of warehousing topics. He writes about automation, warehousing, safety, manufacturing and other areas of concern for industrial operations and those who operate them.