State of Freight November 2021
As the holidays are upon us and the end of the year approaches, our sights turn to shipping to find out what will make it to the shelves this year and beyond. Here’s what’s happening in the supply chain right now. US WEST COAST LAX and LGB ports are clogged with...
Bringing a Game from Idea to Retail Shelf
When bringing a game from idea to retail shelf, there are numerous stages to the process: ideation, creation/development, proof of concept/playtesting, fine-tuning, sometimes back to playtesting, and finally manufacturing, safety testing and shipping. Each of these...
Balancing Your Responsibility To Your Work With Your Skills
How is your time best spent? Your skills and experience may qualify you to perform certain tasks, but do your responsibilities to your work justify it? Tell me if these sound familiar: “I can do _____ faster than it takes me to teach someone else to do it.” “No one...
September 2021 Freight Update
As we approach the middle of peak shipping season and deadlines to get products in before the holidays loom, freight continues to throw a wrench into everyone’s plans. The struggles we dealt with earlier this year have now quadrupled and the scramble to get any goods...
Electricity in Short Supply Across China
Electricity Supply Issues in China Electricity is suddenly in short supply across China. In recent days, factories began getting notices from their local electric utility that they were being forced to shut down heavy electrical demand during certain periods each...
New Manufacturers: Best Practices for Working with Sales Reps
Selling to customers across the country can be daunting. How do you keep your company top of mind for your retail customers, how do you track when your retail customer will need a reorder, and how do you keep them up to date on new products, specials, inventory, and...
Best practices and recommendations for freight forwarding in a world gone mad!
For years GPI has offered international freight forwarding as one of our many services. Our freight specialist, Erin Gagne, has been working tirelessly to manage what is currently a very challenging environment. The situation regarding delays and corresponding higher...
The Impact of China – Covid, Political, and Economic Issues
Anyone paying reasonable attention to economic and cultural events around the globe would certainly recognize that China has been occupying a very visible and impactful role. And during this period of worldwide pandemic recovery, China has been on center stage. There...
Designing a Game with Manufacturing in Mind: A conversation between a new inventor and a manufacturer
Join the staff of GPI for a Nonepub hosted discussion about numerous topics to keep in mind when designing your next game. Get insight on: Packaging Designing with retail in mind Digging into game specs Tooling – custom vs sourced items...
Talking Freight With GPI
What a year 2021 has been (so far, we are only at the halfway point)! With the heavy FREIGHT topic dominating conversations, we thought it may be helpful to address the question WHAT PATH DOES MY PRODUCT TAKE FROM THE END OF THE PRODUCTION LINE TO THE FLOOR OF MY...