Deb and Letitia
At last, today is the day we ship 2,100+ copies of Fire in the Lake and 1,200+ copies of Won by the Sword to our P500 customers. Oh, and mounted maps for four different games, as well! So I thought I’d give you guys a brief glimpse at the mix of organization and chaos that is our warehouse on “mass ship day.”
Elizabeth and Savannah
Everything starts with the office ladies, who have prepared and organized orders and shipping labels in advance of the big day. Without the hard work of these ladies, ship day would be a disaster.
Tracy, Elizabeth, Yecenia, and Cha
The warehouse crew is amazing! They man the build tables, run the shrink wrap machines, process orders, and box and unbox thousands of games in a given month. Well in this case, within just a few days. We have a team of strong young men and savvy young women who know how to tell the strong young men what to do! (Yeah, I’m gonna pay for that one the next time I’m in the warehouse! 🙂 )
Just about every time I’m in the warehouse, Percy (our family dog and my faithful shadow) is with me, so he was long ago “adopted” by all the office and warehouse staff. He does have the capacity to cause a bit of disruption, and there’s no doubt that orders have from time to time been slightly delayed because someone – like Brett in the picture here – just had to stop and pick up Percy.
Brett and Percy
Mike
Box Stress Test – Brandon and Brett
Catch!
Those warehouse guys DO need someone to watch over them, as they often use unconventional methods to test and handle our games! Here we see Brett and Brandon doing a “stomp test” to see how well our heavy duty boxes hold up. And then practicing their throw and catch skills as they provide “careful handling” of your game order! 🙂 (OK, guys, on the off chance that someone out there things we’re serious, this was all in good fun!)
Lumpia to die for!
Pancet – YUM!
It was a bit of a crazy day today, so we ordered in lunch for everyone, and a few folks brought potluck. So we gathered at 11:30 to do what we do best – PIG OUT! And then there was ICE CREAM CAKE!
This is Mike’s last week with us, as he’s heading back to college in a few days. So lunch was also a Goodbye Party for Mike. Everyone loves Mike, so naturally, we got him a really kind, thoughtful card….
Now it’s early afternoon, everyone’s fed, the party is over, and thousands of carefully packed boxes are heading for your doorsteps. We’ve checked all the games to make sure the parts manifest matches what’s in the boxes, that the number of orders on the manifest matches the number that went out, that the labels matched the ship list, and that the UPS log is the same as our order log. UPS has come and gone and things are going smoothly. Pretty sure we thought of every detail and this ship day went perfectly.
HEY, WAIT A MINUTE.
WHERE’S PERCY?
HAS ANYBODY SEEN PERCY?
“Uh-oh….” 🙂
Did someone get a “bonus shipment?” 🙂
Author: Gene Billingsley
Can you send some of that Lumpia and Pancet in one of those indestructible boxes my way? Althought it probably will not taste as good by the time it gets here! 8^)
Man, John, I wish I could. We have a local place here that makes awesome Pancet and Lumpia, so of course we take advantage of that as often as we can! If you ever get out here for a Weekend at the Warehouse, I’ll get you an order of both and you can judge for yourself.
Thanks to all of you. We appreciate you! Now, get back to work and ship my Fire in the Lake.
Thanks Dan! The office folks all read the blog, so they’ll see your kind words. They always say “We have GREAT customers.” I couldn’t agree more. It’s fun to create games and good content for you guys.
Thanks for the Birdseye view Gene! I really appreciate all your blog entries as of late. See you in October at GMT weekend.
You’re most welcome, Jason. Glad you are enjoying InsideGMT. Looking forward to seeing you at the Weekend at the Warehouse – in just a couple months!
Nice article, Mr Founder! It’s really interesting to put actual faces to those names we have transactions with and emails and card charges while we are continents away! By the way, in the first photo, the one with the office ladies, that’s a map of Greece, my homeland, on the wall, isn’t it?
Keep up the good work, everyone!
It is indeed Greece, Dimitrios. Thanks for your kind words and encouragement!
Well if a dog appears bearing my copy of Won By the Sword, we’ll ship him back no worries.
Lol! Thanks Mike!
hu, that looks like real physical work, something I always feared about 🙂
Please don’t forget my FIRE IN THE LAKE 😉
Someone can tell me what LUMPIA is for ….
Hi Olivier! I’m no expert on the history and composition of Lumpia, but here in our area we have a pretty large Filipino population (we have a large Naval Air Station nearby, and many Filipino families who either immigrated here or married into US Navy families during the many years that Subic Bay was a major base for the 7th Fleet.). The type of Lumpia they most often prepare here is fried, with a spring roll-like consistency, with ground pork and multi-vegetable filling. They are DELICIOUS!
How did you get pancit and lumpia? Who is the Filipino on your staff? 🙂
No one on our staff, John. But we have a local restaurant that is run by a really nice Filipino family, and they make GREAT Lumpia and Pancet.
I’d chip in for Lumpia and Pancet for The Weekend at the Warehouse (seriously). vfr
Awesome work! Great to see the inner workings of one of my favorite game companies! Cheers to you all for what you do.
Thanks Tom! We appreciate the encouragement.
If Percy shows up in my box of Won By The Sword, can we keep him? My dog Schnitzel needs a dog of his own.
Great article, Gene. It looks like you have a great crew there.
Hermann
Sorry Hermann. My wife, my kids, my dog. That’s where I draw the line! Anything else is negotiable… 🙂
And it is a great crew to work with. I should note, though, that this is just the “office and warehouse team” part of GMT. We have design, development, production, and art teams spread all over the country, and a few overseas. And all of those teams contribute to GMT being a successful company. Over time here in InsideGMT, through Designer blogs, Interviews, and my Inside View articles, I’m going to try to give you guys a look inside pretty much all of those teams. They are comprised of talented and interesting people. I hope you guys will enjoy getting to know them better.