The Mantis Team
A few months ago during a Mantis brainstorming session in a hotel room in New York, a few of us sat for hours conspiring the plans that would result in the Mantis pre-order program. We discussed many facets of how the program was going to work, including how we would get these packages out to all the pre-order customers. Pre-orders are tricky – you want to make sure to get them in people’s hands on time, but you don’t want to get them out to early to spoil release day. You can hire a third party to handle the fulfillment, but what fun is that? Since we put much extra love and personal touch into the pre-order, we decided we would put together a team of folks in Chicago to help us get these in your hands. No matter what, there are always obstacles, and you’re always at the mercy of the mail carrier. I think we encountered every obstacle you could think of, including manufacturing delays, sub zero temperatures, shipments not arriving on time, etc.
One of the biggest issues came our way when we found out that if we had gone with the original plan, and had the manufacturer assemble the majority of the components of the deluxe boxes, we would not get them until January 19th due to – you guessed it – manufacturing delays. We needed get the band to sign all these boxes before rehearsing, and start shipping orders January 14th. Rachel and I decided that we would have them ship all the deluxe box components directly to us and we would put everything together. Luckily we had rented extra office space in our building, as you wouldn’t believe just how much room all the materials took up! One day, we received over one ton (2,000lbs) of materials! Pallets and pallets of Mantis. With the help of the Mantis team, we would work day and night for days to get the 1,000 deluxe boxes assembled, all the extra goodies included, wrapped, boxed, labeled, and shipped. And get the 2,500 standard edition pre-orders packaged and shipped as well.
We filled USPS trucks to the point they’d have to send more trucks. They even sent the supervisor for our district over to our office to see what the hell was going on – they couldn’t believe how much we were shipping. We even went to the post office with the main postal pick up driver (Torrence) and helped him load bag after bag into the back door. Torrence ended up coming to see the show at The Vic on Monday night because we gave him a copy of the album for all his hard work. He was blown away, and said that Cemetery Walk is his new song to wake up to! We still owe the USPS women who helped us process all these orders some chocolates – Turtles to be exact.
All in all – we had over 20 workers who helped make this process happen. We really didn’t know how many orders we’d be filling when we made the decision to take on this challenge, and I have to say it was a great experience. It was hard work, and we’re still making sure orders are being delivered, but it was worth it. I’d like to thank Rachel and her Mantis team for executing a successful strategy to bring Mantis to your doorsteps, and for their long hours, great attitudes, and willingness to give that extra push to pull this off. And thanks to the band for making this wonderful album!
