The Gopuff building signage shines brightly at the Brooklawn Shopping Center in New Jersey, sitting between PetSmart and a Davita facility.
But customers cannot walk inside to Gopuff Brooklawn. And there is no information presented for ordering from whatever it is they sell.
So what exactly is Gopuff? Well I got the tour today and gathered up all of the details!
In simplest terms they are a delivery only convenience store, where you order from your smartphone and the merchandise is delivered to your house the same day!
Easy peasy.
Gopuff carries a wide array of products from bagged snacks and drinks, to ice cream, baby products, pantry items and health care… even charcoal for your grill.
In a way its a bit like the store section of a pharmacy, or your neighborhood Dollar General, only they deliver to you.
For Gopuff this is their second South Jersey facility, with an even larger hub in Cherry Hill.
Between the two facilities the delivery area in South Jersey somewhat mimics the core 42Freeway and Marlton Pike turf.
Deptford, Washington Twp, northern Gloucester Twp. As far south as Woolwich and Glassboro. As far east as Berlin. Heading further up they will deliver to Cherry Hill, Pennsauken, Mt Laurel.
Well check their site for details or simply download the app for free, enter in your home address.. and let it check.
Keep reading to learn more and if you want to sign-up for Go Puff and give a try, this link should give you a $30 credit towards the service ($10 off next 3 orders). Not gonna lie, the referral code will also send some Gopuff discount funds my way also!
The Brooklawn Shopping Center has done a great job bouncing back from the loss of K-mart in 2010. Back in 2015 I covered the initial new tenant signings!
Also coming to the front of the shopping center is a Chipotle (South Jersey Observer)!
Same Day Deliveries From Their Local Inventory
The delivery business is booming after the Covid pandemic really expanded the usage of delivery apps for the American consumer. Uber Eats, Doordash, Instacart, Amazon and more are ones that most are familiar with.
During this industry growth spurt, Gopuff has been a Wall Street darling regarding their rapid expansion in territory and revenue.
And as mentioned, they now have a facility in Brooklawn NJ, located within the shopping center on Kings Highway and Rt 130.
So to learn more about Gopuff and the Brooklawn NJ location, today I caught up with the location manager who gave me an inside tour of the place, and the run-down of their business model.
In a lot of ways, Gopuff is a mix between Amazon and Instacart.
Like Amazon the products are stocked by Gopuff in a local facility, and you can place an order with your phone or computer for delivery.
But Gopuff is also like Instacart in that when you order, you can expect delivery typically within an hour.
So it’s somewhat a mix of the two apps. Delivered product comes from a central Gopuff facility and is delivered same day, typically within an hour our less.
My delivery tonight to Deptford look less than 30 minutes!
The Brooklawn facility is called a micro-fulfillment center established to house product for customer deliveries within a smaller regional area.
With no reason for the public to enter the Brooklawn building, the front door is locked and requires being buzzed through.
It’s basically a large rectangular room. Mostly bare walls. Concrete floors.
I’m not sure if this surprises me or not.. but it’s setup very much like a regular store. In size it seems larger than a Dollar General but smaller than an Aldi.
The 12 foot wide shelving sections are spaced out very similar to your local store. Maybe 16-20 sections in total.
They seem to be building out a smart “hub and spoke” model where Cherry Hill is a larger facility which operates both as a delivery center and a replenishment center.
Brooklawn is delivery to customers only and can refill inventory items from Cherry Hill (large vendors do deliver directly to Brooklawn).
They can then add additional micro-fulfillment centers “feeding” off of Cherry Hill. I understand a Pennsauken location is planned.
Despite not being a large facility, as we walked around the Brooklawn facility I was surprised to stumble on to the next unique product…. one after another.
“What? Is that a Playstation game controller? People order that?”
But then I thought about it and realized, that based on their original roots and marketing plan it makes complete sense to carry game controllers.
But they are growing rapidly and are looking to take over America. Cities and suburbs!
Gopuff – Started at Drexel and Headquartered in Philadelphia
Gopuff was started in 2013 by two Drexel University students.
The original goal of the business.. and the name.. was geared towards delivering hookah and other smoking products.
Very soon after in 2014 they added convenience store products to the offering, all orderable via their smartphone application. Same customer audience offering more products.
Initially targeting University districts like in Philadelphia and Boston, snacks and beverages were a big part of the business. They still are.
That demographic early on was a younger urban living person who from their city apartment may not of had the same “I’m gonna run to Wawa” advantage the folks in the suburbs have.
So carrying Playstation controllers starts making more sense. Friday night game fest at your college dorm and your game controller breaks… Gopuff!
So sure they have chips, Doritos, sour patch kids and soda.
But they also do a big business with baby products! And ice cream.
How about health items such as aspirin or toothpaste?
I even saw some household products, like cleaning supplies, extension cords and car jumper cables!
And yes the biggest surprise… if you want to boost up the fun on your weekends, they even carry a line of adult toys. I’ll skip that review.
And all delivered right to your doorstep.
Today Gopuff is valued at over $15 Billion according to 2021 articles (TechCrunch)!
And as I mentioned, Wall Street has fallen in love with them having invested $3.4 Billion! (Crunchbase)
Things seem to be going well as last month they celebrated their 10 millionth order but it seems thoughts of taking the company public via an IPO are much further down the line.
And it all comes down to needing to make profits from smaller convenience store style purchases, and a $3.95 delivery fee.
Back in 2018 Gopuff made National news for their plans to open a 300,000 sq ft facility in the area of Glassboro/Harrison Rt 55 exit, which was to be a large distribution hub and technology center.
While the two owners are Drexel graduates and the headquarters are in Philadelphia, they are actually from New Jersey!
Tax incentives were added into a package and even Governor Murphy expressed his excitement for the new facility.
But just a year later the Covid pandemic started, and seemingly delayed plans for that facility.
Since I cover warehouses and the Glassboro 322 area where this facility was planned, I have reached out to Gopuff for additional details on the status.
Rready to Try? $30 Credit for New Customers
I downloaded the Gopuff app today and placed my first order!
The app was very easy to use. Easy to read, nicely categorized to quickly locate the products you want.
Signing up can be done with a traditional Username/PWD account, or linked via other authentication sites such as Google or Facebook.
Being the true millennial nerd than I am, I linked my account to Venmo for payment.
So I placed an order for a variety of items, and despite the app saying 30-50 minutes for delivery my order was at my door in about 25 minutes.
Of course some items are taxed, there is the delivery fee… and keep in mind its customary to tip the drivers (supported within the application).
But if you want to try it.. or at least download the app for free… use this link and it should give you a $30 Gopuff credit. ($10 off next 3 orders)
Just a reminder I do not work for Gopuff and I’m really not familiar with this $30 link program. But please let me know if you had problems with it (and if its too problematic I’ll remove from this article)
Not gonna lie, I’ll get a credit too for the referral! 🙂
Links and Location
Gopuff Convenience Store Products, Delivered.
You can not visit the store. Delivery only.