Group Fun at Plaid

Once in a while we stop the music and just dance! Yes, my Sunday School Class was determined to have a tour of the "home of Gallery Glass", which to the lay person is Plaid Enterprises. We met at the church and carpooled down to the corporate offices in Norcross. People are sometimes disappointed because they think that Plaid will be like one big Michael's store with product hanging everywhere and people making craft projects on every available flat surface, but unfortunately, it's not "Craft Heaven". Plaid looks very much like a normal corporate office with cubes and filing cabinets, although there are a few whimsical areas that the class really enjoyed seeing. In the picture above, we are in the customer conference room where there really are bottles of product hanging from gondolas (the pegboard racks). Everyone enjoyed seeing all the Plaid products in one room. But there was only 1 of each item and not a cash register in sight, so nobody could buy anything. Bummer.

Then we took a look at the Creative Design Area. This is usually the only place at Plaid where actual crafting occurs. It has shelves and shelves of blank surfaces and racks and racks of every color of paint--in every category,-- getting closer to each person's dream job. In the afternoon we went on a plant tour and saw how Gallery Glass is made. We saw the vats where the paint is mixed and the filling line where the liquid is squirted into the bottles on a narriw conveyor. As the bottle moves down the line, machines drop the tip, the cap, the label, and the shrink band. When all these parts are in place, the bottles are swept into a machine that bundles 6 bottles together. It's an amazing process. We enjoyed seeing all the warehouse racks --with acres and acres of brown boxes stacked all the way to the top of the 20' ceiling--amazing how they ever find anything. But it was July in Georgia--not a cool, comfortable place to be. Our admiration for the loyal Plaid employees mounted with every step.

Once the tour was over, we noticed that we had worked up quite an appetite. Luckily there is a local deli close to the church where we feasted and discussed plans for Summer Gallery Glass projects. All in all, it was a wonderful Saturday afternoon, even though it was a tad warm. Our hearts and hats to go off to the wonderful people at Plaid who work in less than ideal conditions to bring us "magic" in a bottle. Thanks, Plaid employees. Keep it up!