I ran across this in search for information on the items that I bid on today. First of all I am very sorry to hear of all the losses. If it is of any interest to anyone. The entire Geckler warehouse is on Kbid auction right now. I didn’t want to post a link as it may violate your advertising policy? If just mentioning the name violates this. I am sorry and did not mean for it to be an advertisement. Only a heads up as to where the company’s merchandise stands at this moment. The auction closes on Thursday April 29th.
They are auctioning entire pallets of school supplies and merchandise.
Again very sorry for anyone’s loss.
I must say that I take care of all of our company's importing and our time on the water from China is 2 weeks. We are working closely with our agents, manufacturers and freight forwarder (UPS Supply Chain Solutions) to make sure that we order conservatively up front and then reorder quickly after initial school data is in during the early part of September. So, it can be done with diligence and hard work.
Furthermore, I run a lot of statistics and the "useable" import items still sell like crazy which raises a lot of money for education. So, while it was sad to see Giftco go and so many hurt, I believe in the long run this will help the industry provide higher quality product and better value to the end-fundraising-customer while retaining the expected profits to the school (if fundraising companies are willing to go that route versus putting more into their own pockets).
To BelieveJay
You're right, there were other issues. The pallets of product in the warehouse
labeled "China" had to be liquidated at a loss. You can call an American supplier
and have product in 30 days. Just time on the water is 3 months from China.
The largest fundraising supplier in the US went under because of leftover
inventory in the warehouse an ironically they were a "G" company Giftco.
Let me change the word choice. "The more concerned a company is about
never having backorders and substitution and taking care of thier customers"
the more imported product they have to order to make sure they don't run
out. This creates higher risk for the company (not the PTO etc.) Nobody wants
to work with a bad company, they want to get what they were promised. The
best way to do this is minimize imports on their brochures. BelieveJay, you are
a fundraising company, you may not agree but this should make sense.
I'm not sure this is a fair assessment. I just don't believe there is any evidence to suggest that buying American would have made any impact on this particular situation.
I found your comment 'The better the company the higher the risk!!!' an interesting choice of words. Nobody I know wants to work with a bad company because it's safer.
I agree with FR rep to a certain point. You should look for more items mad in the USA, yet like he said, "what is the percentage we get?" is so important to schools. At the same time, there are many companies that continue to fill their brochures with imports even though they no longer sell. In today's economy, why does someone want to buy a Xmas tray for $17.00 when a similar item is being sold at Target for $4.99? Support the school? Only to a point. People still want some value for their dollar.
That is why cookie dough and other food items sell so well. There is no stupid talk of 50% in cookie dough. I do fear that if the price of cookie dough continues to rise and the amount offered in the package goes down, it will suffer the same fate as the imports. My school sold their cookie dough for $12 (three pound tub) and sold more than ever before. If the price had been $15, I doubt we would have done as well.
I wonder if Geckler companies sold cookie dough or did they just depend on the imports?
In defense of troubled companies:
Fundraising companies are high risk businesses! The better the company the
higher the risk!!! Why? Because no one likes to hear "back ordered" or
"substitution". To avoid these happening with imported products, companies have to order cash-up-front, order 9 months in advance, and order extra because there isn't a chance to order again for that season. Some companies say "what the heck, when we run out we run out" and their customers suffer. Other companies over order to make sure their customers receive everything as promised. The inventory left in the warehouse at the end of the season can wipe out all company profit, especially in a down economy when sell through could be 20% less than projected. If your school wants to avoid back orders, substitutions, and a company going out of business, you may want to look for American Made and a limited number of imported products. The Geckler Co. did have one of the best tract records in the industry for avoiding back orders & substitutions. Perhaps, their dedication to their customers and end of year inventory was significant to their financial demise. You may ask
why companies use imports. The answer is simple, the first question most
PTO's etc. ask is "what's the percentage we get to keep?" The easiest way for
fundraising companies to up the groups profit is to beef up the number of imports and lower the quality of the non import products. If a parent says "that product
was a piece of something" You can't tell them "but we got 52%" Buyer Beware!
