Grimco Buys GSG

[d fleming]

Worst thing that happened to my business this year was grimeco bought tubelite. Had a decades long history with them and it is toast. Instantly service and deliveries were gone and They wanted to use my credit card again. They have a terrible history of bookkeeping and accounting. No way I let them use my cerdit or debit to my account again, ever. I now drive and hour+ one way for substrates as it is cheaper than ordering from them and it doesn't show up destroyed. Hell as it is now if I need ink carts they come from 6 different directions with shipping ($30) for each cart. Fellers has a 5 item order from me now. Coming from 4 locations. Glad I'm retiring soon. The fishies are callin"

 

[Lucky Sky]

As a Grimco customer and former GSG customer, I believe that buying GSG was the right move. After years of moderate to poor service from my local GSG warehouse, we have switched almost exclusively to Grimco and have experienced great customer service and sales support from Grimco. I'm sure other GSG locations do better by their customers, but my local branch just didn't do even the basics to keep me as a customer.

 

[Modern Ink Signs]

Wait, did they actually buy gsg, or is this a thought experiment?

Nope they are integrating them into Grimco. Switched a lot of my business from Grimco to GSG over the past year plus.

For me Grimco service had sucked, delivery is poor. Pricing vs GSG was higher. So now I can’t wait for my pricing to go up not to mention the expected increases from the manufacturers.

Delivery driver has about 2 months of employment left.

 

[JBurton]

Delivery driver has about 2 months of employment left.

Yeah, this is the worst part, just cause you get to know these guys when they're dropping off stuff. My driver just had a baby, last time I saw him, thursday or friday last week, he seemed bummed, but I neglected to see what was up. Something tells me he got the news. I wonder if he's on the block, one of the reps said they wouldn't be changing anything for a year, maybe they meant this year?

 

[RachelKelly]

I thought this was propaganda. I just got off the phone with gsg. They told me that the purchase went through on Thursday. Friday, they made the announcement and Monday the Grimco ceo met with gsg staff.

As to the fellers comment: Frank Fellers already sold out. So if they sell to grimco, it might be mildly surprising just because they just went through that a year or so ago.

I just want to know if Grimco will carry arlon. Their briteline version of slx has some failures.

I'm not real happy about this announcement. I like gsg.

Yea my office wasn't happy about Denco, They had some awesome sales guys and had all the printing supplies they needed for the Roland. The funny thing is Denco had bought a company called Tubelite 6 or 7 months before Denco bought them.

 

[jayhawksigns]

Not thrilled here either. Had used Grimco in the past, no real complaints other then their prices going up and up and up. Just bought a printer though through GSG, hasn't even shipped yet, assuming nothing changes for us on the order but who knows.

 

[Zeke302]

I was a a long time employee in a management position (after some years), of one of those previous acquisitions.. I spent 17 years reporting directly to the VP/part-owner. I emulated that guy, from day 1, it just made sense if one had good work ethic. "Treat this business like it is yours" so to speak. Made my heart happy to do so, and I advanced over the years and financially was compensated fairly for my efforts. I hired, trained, retained amazing employees after he sold his stake.

When we were acquired, my exit interview was (so to speak) "Sign the papers" They did not care that I had 20 plus years, based on what I learned daily from a guy with 30 years experience serving our customers.

Grimco were fair enough though, in their notice of our terminations. (Thankfully I didn't work for Midwest, many of them got screwed a few years back.)

At the end of the day, a former co-worker of mine, (now retired) put it best in my opinion. "I Was able to be an Ace Hardware kind of Salesperson before, in terms of product knowledge, communication, service, and follow-up, but at this point welcome to Costco!"

"The Creation & Retention of #1 Customers for Life"

Used to be that was done (in part) by a handful of 20 year plus educated CSR's who knew screen print/digital/led/electrical/neon...

It is really no different at this point (for likely most of you), than what we all as consumers have dealt with and complained about in terms of Walmart... concerning self check-out, zero customer service knowledge, stockers and their 4x4 crates in the aisles, etc.

Check Facebook reviews. https://www.facebook.com/GrimcoInc/reviews

I wish all you Mom & Pops, Franchises, and Wholesalers the best in 2025 and in the future. Sharpen your pencils folks, in terms of dealing with all the crap many of you will be forced to manage from this point forward. The mis-shipments, late shipments, lack of help, stockouts... it's here to stay.

Had some great friends in the industry suggest this place or that, (including sending my resume to GSG).

Glad I looked the other direction, obviously at this point.

Was a nice ride. Happy Holidays y'all.

 

[tulsagraphics]

Bet they buy Fellers next

Someone needs to buy Fellers just to put them out of their misery. Are they tryin' to break into the residential market now? /smh https://www.fellers.com/siser

 

[chester215]

Grimco recently bought Garston in CT that carried the Arlon vinyl that I use daily.
They don't carry it anymore, had to source it elsewhere.

 

[Stacey K]

Someone needs to buy Fellers just to put them out of their misery. Are they tryin' to break into the residential market now? /smh https://www.fellers.com/siser

Oh boy...that is beginner level. They are selling those tiny little cutters and showing what you can do with pillows? Definitely residential. None of us in the apparel business use such a cutter nor do we make pillows for customers. What a joke.