Brian,

I do so few plastic trophies that I just don't have much of a chance to have problems like that. I have never ordered any from Marco.

I haven't used their resins, but with a warehouse within 1-day shipping, my shop will be displaying many more of their resin, wood, crystal, glass and piano-finished gift and award products that are competitively priced.

Catalogs will always put the products best face forward. It isn't any different than the restaurant industry. Have you ever been served a sandwich or meal that resembled the advertisement picture you saw?

David,

Like you, I am very happy to have another supplier warehouse in the neighborhood. Now we have The Source, Continental and Marco DTC. Makes it a lot easier to bid big plaque jobs as I can gp pick them up and practically eliminate the shipping cost.
I have not shown their catalog much because of the shipping costs. With the new warehouse they will get a lot more exposure here at my shop.

BTW if (when) you move to North K.C. will you be moving your store up there too or will you drive back and forth to St. Joe???

David,

The new KC warehouse is not open yet..............

When I talked to them last Friday, they are putting up racking and should start to fill stock as it comes in, I don't know how long it will take to get their ducks in a row...................but the new manager broke his leg while working there so it may go a little slower. When they do open, I'm sure Continental & The Source will feel it.

That is not a bad commute. I used to work at a facility that was 45 minutes away into traffic both ways. And you will be going to a job you love.

The chamber memberships do bring in some work. I need to do more of that myself.

James,

Chambers of Commerce are great, especially since we are in an industry in which they will actually need our services. I pay for separate memberships for my engraving business and promotional products business. I will likely do the same in KC.

We order quite a few things from Marco.. namely their Resins, plaque reliefs and trays..

I have had a few problems with some of their items, but they are always good about replacing the item..

The one problem I have with them is their warehouse in Memphis (an hour away from us) They never have the items in stock there, so we still get everything shipped out of Texas.. so good luck with them stocking the KC Warehouse!!!!! ;-) 

Dixie,

That's where I have a problem with The Source in KC. I run into out-of-stock items too many times. Now, I don't bother calling and end up ordering from Plastics Plus most of the time for my PDU and Victory products. They do a nice job with inventory management.

I hope Marco does a good job with their inventory management, otherwise it won't matter whether they are one day away or in the middle of the Dead Sea.

as far as we are concerned they are in the dead sea. the last order placed with them, 4 items, took a week to finally all arrive from 3 different warehouses.
we're about ready not to deal with them anymore. more stress with them than the other 20 suppliers we deal with all together.

David,

If you aren't too far from Chicago warehouse, I get my product in Michigan overnight and I can't remember when they didn't have an item in stock.

I feel the same as lots of people here as for "out of stock" and the like. They carry some things no other suppliers carry but it does get hard to continue business with them. I buy some from them and would buy more if they were more like Plastic Plus. I would like to know up front if my order is coming from 3 different locations or even backordered. Also not too long ago, they came out with some really nice looking resins. I ordered one of each only to find out they didn't have half of my order. Because of this type of thing, how can I display their samples in my showroom if I am not sure if I can even get the items for the customers? It is scary showing their samples! They would be unbeatable if they could clean up some of the small problems. I have actually spoken to management about some of these problems. I have been told they carry so many items they can't stock it all at every location and will not attempt to. The answer to the problem is.... reduce your offerings to keep up!

ps... A customer came in WHILE I was typing this and asked for anything "new" for pinewood derby. What did I do?

Marco/Discount is not one of my regular suppliers. I order from the Chicago
warehouse only when I can't get the product any where else, about 2-3 times a year. Shipping from different warehouses has been an issue, in the fact that I wasn't aware of it at the time of the order. Getting the incorrect product, ordering 8 of 1 item, receiving 7 correct & the other one was a different sized product of what I did order. Customer service not always the the most responsive. Requiring 2 phone calls, when 1 phone call would have worked with my other suppliers. I am not trying to "bad mouth" them, they just haven't proved themselves to be the most reliable & friendly. I order PDU products from RAM in Indiana & Plastic-Plus in St. Louis. Both of them are very friendly & have done an excellent job for me.

My recent experiences with the newly opened Marco DTC warehouse in Kansas City have been good. On Tuesday I ordered 12 different items, and all 12 shipped out of the KC warehouse. Just thought I would share this update.

I am the type of person who likes to receive my invoices quickly. It seemed as though Marco's order entry and accounting procedures were not very streamlined, because I had always received my invoices at least a week or more after I received the goods. I recently asked to have them e-mail me the invoices and now I receive them the day after I receive the shipment. This works out great.

David,

I stopped in and talked with the manager of the KC office shortly after it opened. I can't remember his name as he did not have any business cards and I have those "senior moments" daily with names. He seemed like a nice guy and knew what he was talking about. Their warehouse is just about a mile from Continentals so that is convenient too. I specifically asked about the inventory levels because there had been discussion about that being an issue with Marco. He told me that they were going to stock everything that is in the catalog and in sufficient quantity to fill any reasonable sized order. Did not get a definition of reasonable though.

Good to see that they are keeping their word so far.