IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 50

A DAy
in the
Life of
Digi-Key

With a million products
in its catalog, the global
electronics distributor caters
to corporate engineers and
hobbyists alike
PhotograPhy by GreGG SeGal
text by Jean KumaGai

In the 42 years sInce Its foundIng, Digi-Key Corp.
has grown-and grown-into one of the world's largest electronic-component distributors. Its online catalog features nearly a million parts and products. Last
year it sold US $1.6 billion worth of merchandise to
more than half a million customers in 170 countries.
And the vast majority of Digi-Key's offerings are kept
in stock, available for immediate shipping, in a single
place: the company's 74 000-square-meter warehouse. That enormous warehouse sits on the southwestern edge of the tiny town of Thief River Falls,
Minn. The nearest city is Grand Forks, N.D., hardly
a metropolis. The warehouse operates around the
clock, 365 days a year, with the result that any order
placed by 8 p.m. local time gets shipped out the same
day. Digi-Key, like its archrival Mouser Electronics,
caters to both corporate clients and hobbyists. The
company will gladly sell you a Xilinx Virtex-7 fieldprogrammable gate array for $39 452.40, but it will
also sell you a single 10-cent through-hole resistor.
When you call Digi-Key's toll-free number, an actual
person answers, usually within 5 seconds. From
there, you'll be guided expertly, even if you have no
idea what you need, even if all you're getting is that
10-cent resistor, even if you speak Chinese, Hindi, or
Portuguese. In an age of impersonal e-commerce, of
voice mail that never gets returned, of languishing on
hold, the experience of being a Digi-Key customer can
seem almost surreal. ➜

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum February, 2014

IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - Cover1
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - Cover2
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 1
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 2
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 3
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 4
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 5
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 6
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 7
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 8
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 9
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 10
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 11
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 12
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 13
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 14
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 15
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 16
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 17
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 18
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 19
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 20
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 21
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 22
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 23
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 24
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 25
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 26
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 27
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 28
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 29
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 30
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 31
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 32
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 33
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 34
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 35
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 36
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 37
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IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 40
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 41
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 42
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 43
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IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 45
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IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 47
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IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 49
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 50
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IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 60
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IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 68
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 69
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 70
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 71
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - 72
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - Cover3
IEEE Spectrum February, 2014 - Cover4
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