We’re Not Late

Donn James

I have, amazingly enough, been part of a couple for several decades now and have also viewed a myriad of relationships over the years and have discovered one irrefutable fact…one of the couple is always the late one.  Whether it’s an appointment, a party with his/her/their friends, holiday, wedding or funeral, they assume time is standing still while they prepare.  My argument falls on deaf ears as I ask, “Why offer to bring appetizers if we’re going to be this late?”  I probably don’t speak for everyone but I hate walking in with a tray of “pigs in a blanket” when everyone there is eating cake.  While I hesitate to lay blame anywhere, let me tell you…it’s not me.  I’m the guy who has taken the dogs out, turned off the dryer and has been standing by the front door with car keys in my hand for twenty minutes.  All this brings me to this Saturday past when we were, for us, very nearly on time for a funeral service.  Considering it was less than 4 miles and supposed to take 8 minutes or less, we were in great shape.  As a male, I was even moderately offended that my wife insisted I Google map our destination.  Remember, less than 4 miles in an area we have lived for 21 years.  And I will even admit to a certain amount of blame as I, in true stereotypical male fashion, left the directions to the church on the kitchen counter.  As we pulled into a decidedly deserted parking lot, I alternately thought my friend died friendless or we’re in the wrong place, we began to believe something was amiss.  After entering an empty church my wife opened her phone to check her email only to find out the service is November 27^th.  After sharing a laugh, my wife opined that since we were two weeks early, this has to count as being on time.  Knowing when to pick my battles kept me silent because when we’re late on the 27^th, it will just cancel it out anyway.  Does this strike a chord with you?  Be honest and send us a comment.  Are you the person by the door or are you the one with outfits laying on the bed going eeny, meeny, miney, moe?  Or deciding now is the best time to change the batteries in the smoke detectors?

It’s not really that different in business.  Many of your promotional product buys are event-driven and therefore time sensitive.  You need to be able to trust your suppliers to deliver on time.  At IMC we have six collections and in 2012, we will continue to have more retail brands than any promotional product supplier in the industry with delivery times from 24 hours to 14 days.  If you’re in a hurry we have thousands of items our in-house decoration can deliver quickly but if you plan ahead, we have thousands more we can deliver on time and maybe even save you some money.  And we’re always happy to offer ideas and provide case histories to give you ideas of what and how to promote our products.  What do you think?  Let us know with a comment here or on Facebook or Twitter.  IMC wants to hear from you.