I have recently been following the tracking on a couple packages shipped via FedEx. I am watching in amusement the routes these packages have taken. The one from Harbor Freight shipped from Los Angeles, came through Oregon (where I live) went to Kent, WA and back to the town in OR where I live. Now the order i'm waiting on from Hancock Fabric came from MS to TN to Troutdale, OR (about and hours drive from here) to Kent, WA and now back to my home town. Should get the package soon. I'm sure there is one but, I just don't get the logic of this. Just saying. :D

I watched a package get within 100 miles of my home from across the country, then bounce back around thru the center of the country and show up a week later. If I remember correctly, the barcode was damaged on the label.

It could depend on the routing depots.
Our Canadian Postal system is expensive and time consuming (in other words slow and inefficient).
I live 10 min from the US in a major border city but if I mail a parcel to the US our PO will send it North to Toronto (4 hrs driving time from where we live) and then it will travel East to Montreal (8 hrs from Toronto). It will then be sent across the border.

Kent is probably the location of a major distribution center.

It's actually more cost effective to send EVERYTHING there, and then distribute all the packages to various smaller distributions centers, then to stop "on the way" through Oregon at those same centers. ;-)

Remember when EVERY FedEx package went to Memphis first? If I was on 50th St in Manhattan and sending something downtown to Wall St., it still went to Memphis first. ;-)

Sometimes I want to be a pkg so I can do all the traveling! Lol