Did Grimco acquire Midwest??

[Reaction GFX]

Never quite sure which forum to post in...but does anyone know if Grimco acquired Midwest Sign & Screen? I buy from Midwest all the time as I have a local branch 15 minutes from me. Just looked at my invoice from yesterday and the remittance address is now showing as "Grimco Midwest LLC, Chicago, IL." This is the first I'm hearing about this. I used to send my payment to Midwest in St. Paul, MN. A quick Google shows that Grimco Midwest LLC was formed in September 2020, but that's about all I can find about the topic, not even any news on Grimco's site. Weird...

Anyone have any insight on this? I'm assuming that it won't really change anything much for me, mostly I'm just curious...

 

[Solventinkjet]

I had heard that through the grapevine but wasn't sure enough to post anything. Guess it's true!

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I just asked my rep. Grimco did purchase them to become the parent company back in October. They are operating as: DBA Midwest Sign. My rep said it has been all positive from their standpoint so far.

 

[RaymondLoewy]

I hope Grimco can raise their customer service to Midwest's level and not drag Midwest down to theirs.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I hope Grimco can raise their customer service to Midwest's level and not drag Midwest own to theirs.

Statistically, I would say that concerns like that depends on the parent company more so then the company that was bought.

Gotta love when things become "centralized" to any one business.

 

[rjssigns]

Haven't had any issue with Grimco. Some time ago Midwest stopped delivering to my home shop. Grimco said give me your money and address.
Hope that doesn't change.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Gimco did acquire them. Some of the accounting practices have changed, and MW is getting leaner, but that's about the extent of the changes so far. I'm not thinking MW made any money in the last few years, so it was a matter of time. This was Grimco's largest acquisition, so it seems they are playing this one a bit differently. We buy from both, and the both seem to compete with each other still. From an ownership standpoint, my guess would be they will continue to keep them separate.

I feel like it will be a bit like how Inteplast owns Matraplast and Coroplast now, but they all operate fairly independently of each other.

 

[WYLDGFI]

Grimco has been buying up a bunch of the smaller distributors. We have access to 2 Grimco branches here, North NJ and Philly and get deliveries from both. If they dont have what we need we go to Harbor in MD or others down our list. 99% of the time we have good experience with Grimco but errors do happen.

 

[spectrum maine]

grimco purchased new england sign supply last year. went from fair customer service to dismal. they are a distributor of matthews paints. will not sell you custom colors, never have anything in stock, and do not care about the small guy. I happily transferred all my business to garston. Great service and even better pricing.grimco is the walmart of the sign business.

 

[MikePro]

Apparently it happened back in Oct. I had heard it from a delivery driver, but just assumed he was mistaken at the time. Makes total sense now, bummer or blessing t.b.d?

I've been getting great service from my New Berlin Grimco branch, but always preferred Midwest for various reasons. I used to LOVE how I could order from Midwest by 8:30am and my by-the-yard vinyl orders would arrive by noon'ish the same day. However, Midwest now only delivers once-a-week, whereas Grimco delivers daily but 10yd increments. Manageable, but I guess I've been spoiled all these years. Hopefully by the yard ordering will remain amongst the siblings.

 

[Clifford]

Not sure if anyone else will agree, but I have noticed a marked difference in the customer service, not positive at all. I don't have any consistency anymore, often short or rude sales folks. Orders are now shipping with Speedee delivery service rather than UPS. Used to be 2 or less days delivery to our location, now sometime takes a week or more. Perhaps the pandemic has simply messed stuff up, but I am kind of worried Grimco may also have something to do with it. I see last post was in March, anyone seen any changes since then like I have?

 

[Reaction GFX]

Not sure if anyone else will agree, but I have noticed a marked difference in the customer service, not positive at all. I don't have any consistency anymore, often short or rude sales folks. Orders are now shipping with Speedee delivery service rather than UPS. Used to be 2 or less days delivery to our location, now sometime takes a week or more. Perhaps the pandemic has simply messed stuff up, but I am kind of worried Grimco may also have something to do with it. I see last post was in March, anyone seen any changes since then like I have?

Things at Midwest have seemingly been going downhill for years. It started years ago when I was only running my business part-time and they suddenly would no longer deliver to residential addresses. Fine. Not the end of the world. I've been in my shop full-time for 3+ years now, so that isn't an issue anymore. Then they "updated" their website and made it significantly worse than it was before. It is the slowest, clunkiest website ever, and it can sometimes be incredibly difficult to find what I need as the search function barely works. Somehow they managed to take an already awful website that I was just starting to get the hang of using and made it even worse with their "update." Then with the pandemic, delivery is definitely hit or miss. I used to be able to call them in the morning and as long as I called before 9am, I could get items on the truck for delivery that same day, and they usually came before 11am. Now I don't know how or when my items will be delivered, and it seems the cutoff for next day delivery is like 2pm, and then it comes SpeeDee, and may not show up until 4pm the next day. 90% of the time I order will-call now since they are only 15 minutes away, but that raises another issue--more than once I've placed an order online and when I go to pick it up (I ALWAYS give them 2+ hours between my ordering and picking up) they have no record of it at the warehouse. It's like the online order system is significantly delayed between the warehouse and sometimes my orders never reach the warehouse at all. This results in me often having to wait up to 20 minutes for them to pull my order that should have been ready when I got there. It's frustrating, and I'm not sure how much of this has to do with Grimco, but I still continue to order from them because they are one of the only places that sells vinyl by the yard, and like I said, they are only 15 minutes from me and they usually have whatever I need in stock.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yes Grimco's business plan seems to be to buy out their competitors rather than try to compete against them in terms of service and price.

 

[vondegroot]

Grimco has been really great here in Calgary. I am not a huge customer either.

 

[redprint]

Grimco has bought Midwest Sign. Right now, if you need to talk to them, they make you wait on the phone for like a hour, if you are lucky they answer it. I called three times on one day, never did talk to ANYONE> I had a Grimco salesperson call me one day, and I voiced my opinion of not liking the non customer service aspect that is happening at Midwest since Grimco bought it. You can't talk to anyone to get serviced. I find that quite odd. It is almost like Grimco wants Midwest clients to quit doing business with them. I have never seen this before in my life, where you are unable to do business with them. I have no idea if anything I need is even available anymore. No one to talk to. I would assume they are in the midst of firing lots of people at Midwest, the ones who have worked for us for decades. The salesman from Grimco was all about being less expensive than Midwest, so I ordered two rolls of 3M IJ180CV3 and got the bill and it was over a $100 higher than Midwest. I guess that guy lied to me right off the bat. Makes you wonder, how you can mess up a good thing and drag it down to your level. Grimco has done it. If you need to know if you can get something from Midwest, order it online and hope it comes this year. Most of their items now say call for availability, but fail to mention, "IF WE ANSWER THE PHONE THAT IS>"

 

[Reaction GFX]

Grimco has bought Midwest Sign. Right now, if you need to talk to them, they make you wait on the phone for like a hour, if you are lucky they answer it. I called three times on one day, never did talk to ANYONE> I had a Grimco salesperson call me one day, and I voiced my opinion of not liking the non customer service aspect that is happening at Midwest since Grimco bought it. You can't talk to anyone to get serviced. I find that quite odd. It is almost like Grimco wants Midwest clients to quit doing business with them. I have never seen this before in my life, where you are unable to do business with them. I have no idea if anything I need is even available anymore. No one to talk to. I would assume they are in the midst of firing lots of people at Midwest, the ones who have worked for us for decades. The salesman from Grimco was all about being less expensive than Midwest, so I ordered two rolls of 3M IJ180CV3 and got the bill and it was over a $100 higher than Midwest. I guess that guy lied to me right off the bat. Makes you wonder, how you can mess up a good thing and drag it down to your level. Grimco has done it. If you need to know if you can get something from Midwest, order it online and hope it comes this year. Most of their items now say call for availability, but fail to mention, "IF WE ANSWER THE PHONE THAT IS>"

FYI, Midwest Sign will no longer exist soon. Got the scoop from an employee last time I was in there picking something up. It's a shitshow right now, for sure, and I feel bad for the employees caught in the middle. They are in the process of transitioning everything over to Grimco, including the website (which is actually great because Midwest's website has sucked royally for years, their "update" a few years back actually made the website worse...LOL). The Midwest name will only exist for the screen printing side of things, since Grimco never sold screen printing supplies. They are currently trying to get rid of inventory that Grimco does not carry (which explains why literally everything on the website says "call for availability"), and they will no longer sell vinyl by the yard, which is one of the main reasons I ordered from Midwest. Oh well. I guess GSG and Fellers will be getting more of my business moving forward. They both have locations within 1/4 mile of my local Midwest branch, so no skin off my back. It's too bad, though...I really used to love Midwest for their great customer service, vast knowledge, and they always seemed to have what I needed in stock. I'm not anti-Grimco and I will order from them if I need to, but my money will go to Wensco, GSG and Fellers, in that order, before Grimco.

 

[Stacey K]

FYI, Midwest Sign will no longer exist soon. Got the scoop from an employee last time I was in there picking something up. It's a shitshow right now, for sure, and I feel bad for the employees caught in the middle. They are in the process of transitioning everything over to Grimco, including the website (which is actually great because Midwest's website has sucked royally for years, their "update" a few years back actually made the website worse...LOL). The Midwest name will only exist for the screen printing side of things, since Grimco never sold screen printing supplies. They are currently trying to get rid of inventory that Grimco does not carry (which explains why literally everything on the website says "call for availability"), and they will no longer sell vinyl by the yard, which is one of the main reasons I ordered from Midwest. Oh well. I guess GSG and Fellers will be getting more of my business moving forward. They both have locations within 1/4 mile of my local Midwest branch, so no skin off my back. It's too bad, though...I really used to love Midwest for their great customer service, vast knowledge, and they always seemed to have what I needed in stock. I'm not anti-Grimco and I will order from them if I need to, but my money will go to Wensco, GSG and Fellers, in that order, before Grimco.

You are spot on with the website! I would have probably ordered more vinyl from them but that whole tier system they have is atrocious! I complained to my salesperson about it when he stopped in to ask why I don't buy more from them and he acted like I was an idiot. Fellers and Grimco are 4 clicks with pictures and you are on the page of you choice. Midwest is 10 and I just gave up counting because...

 

[FireSprint.com]

They are changing over the MIS system. Causing real headaches. Midwest will become Midwest Screen and Grimco will be running all the signage business.

It's too bad they couldn't keep them separate. We bought alot from Agfa and Midwest before the acquisitions.

 

[MNT_Printhead]

I was order 100 pre-cut 36x48's gatorplast from MW, they would cut in in MN and ship it down on a pallet for no extra cost; the last I spoke to an MW CSR they said they no longer could which sucks. MW was my back up vendor aside from substrates. Looks like I will be giving Montroy a shot at that business.

Grimco had become so terrible I dropped them 2 years ago and they still regulalry call me leaving voice mails offered better pricing etc. I have caller ID at the office and the sales rep has been trying me on his personal cell lately. I got an anonymous call earlier today and imagine it was Grimco.