Amazon’s newest million-square-foot warehouse is slated to go up an hour east of San Francisco in Tracy, California. This conservative farm town of 84,000 may be a world away culturally from its Bay Area neighbors. But it’s close enough physically to make shipping Amazon orders a snap.

Amazon long kept its distribution centers out of California to avoid having to collect state sales tax. The de facto tax holiday gave Amazon a huge price advantage over brick-and-mortar competitors in the state, especially for high ticket items like electronics.