http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/nyregion/20ebay.html
March 20, 2007 Lumberton Journal A South Jersey Town Emerges as a Hub of E-Commerce By JONATHAN BERR LUMBERTON, N.J. With its red-brick exterior and a wood-paneled lobby that is decorated with artwork from students at the nearby elementary school, the post office in this unassuming town 20 miles east of Philadelphia hardly looks like a center of Internet commerce. It took the postmaster, Kathleen Pfeiffer, a while to catch on, even as she and her staff of two grew accustomed to shipping out some 100 packages that were dropped off every Monday by post office regulars. Ms. Pfeiffer eventually discovered the link among those Monday morning customers. They were all members of the Internet auction site eBay, and those packages contained everything the auctioneers had sold the previous weekend. But Ms. Pfeiffer didnt recognize Lumbertons place in the Internet marketplace until November, when eBay announced that the largely white-collar town of 12,000 people had the most active community of buyers and sellers on a per-capita basis in the United States. They still think of us as a small country post office, but the joint does jump, said Ms. Pfeiffer, who has been postmaster since 1993, two years before eBay was founded. EBay based its ranking on transactions posted during three weeks in November, when more than 46,000 listings originated from Lumberton and its ZIP code 08048 for items ranging from bedding to books to camping equipment. In all, eBay says on its Web site, more than 3,000 people in the Lumberton ZIP code are members. It is hard to pinpoint a reason for eBays popularity in Lumberton. The members here, by and large, are the mom-and-pop auctioneers who drove the sites early success and not full-time sellers who make their living on eBay, the company said. The profile of the typical seller has changed over the past five years to a more professional seller, said David Steiner, the chief executive of the independent trade publication AuctionBytes. There are probably fewer people doing it part time, selling it out of their attic. In Lumberton, the eBay regulars are people like Cheyenne DiEnno, an artist who was at the post office last week shipping silver jewelry and a sheepskin jacket. The mayor, Patrick Delaney, who describes himself as a casual eBay customer, said he ships out cameras that he sells on eBay. And Ms. Pfeiffer said she had recently unloaded a number of college textbooks on the site so that she could buy materials for community college classes she is taking. One of eBays biggest shippers in the area is Rons Comic World in Mount Holly, which sends 15 to 25 packages a week through the Lumberton post office to its eBay customers, said the stores co- owner, Ron Catapano. Many of those shipments go to service members from Fort Dix and McGuire Air Force Base who are now serving overseas; Rons waives shipping charges for military personnel stationed overseas. EBay, which has been fighting off competition from Google and others, has not hesitated to use Lumberton in its public relations efforts. We think its really great, said Gary Briggs, eBays chief marketing officer. Its a great testament to how eBay can be found everywhere. The second biggest Web auction center in the United States, according to eBays calculations, was in Nashville, followed by Henderson, Nev., a Las Vegas suburb, and a ZIP code in Las Vegas itself. The company plans to hold a party for Lumberton in May, and eBay made a $100,000 donation to a local animal shelter, based on votes cast by the towns eBay members. Until about 15 years ago, Lumberton it gets its name from the lumber mills that were prevalent in region in the 1700s and 1800s was surrounded by fields of corn, wheat, tomatoes and potatoes. But the township has changed drastically in recent years, and the population has doubled since 1990, according to the Census Bureau. Main Street, where the post office sits, still snakes through a historic district where the homes date to the 19th century. Still standing is a converted Victorian house that served as the townships municipal building and police headquarters until about 20 years ago. Were sort of this little island among more recognizable areas like Mount Laurel, Moorestown and Medford, even Mount Holly, said Barry Lefkowitz, the head of the Greater Lumberton Regional Business Association. In Lumberton, eBay is not necessarily a ticket to easy riches. But the residents who come and go at Ms. Pfeiffers post office say they will continue to plug away in hopes the site will fatten their wallets. Ms. DiEnno, who was at the post office on what she considered a slow day she was shipping only five packages, half her usual number for a Monday said, It certainly helps with the bills. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TELECOM-CITIES Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
