Thoughts on the drive from SC to Boston

My youngest son transferred from UMASS Amherst to the University of South Carolina last week – a smart move on his part at this time of year.  While helping him move in, I took the opportunity to visit with our friends at Scansource.  Their headquarters is in Greenville SC which about 100 miles from the campus of USC in Columbia.  Dana and I have done business with Scansource since the genesis of PaladinID and they are one of our primary distributors of all things bar code and data collection related.  I was hosted on my visit by our sales rep Walker Young who took the time to show me the facility and introduce me to a number of the staff folks there.  It is easy to forget when you deal with Scansource or any distributor that beyond the voice on the phone is an infrastructure of people dedicated to making your business successful.  I was really taken aback when Walker took me in to the main sales area.  It is half the size of a football field with approximately 60 cubicles and that does not include the marketing and logistics folks.  Very impressive.

I also spoke with Maria Ives in marketing and Christopher Reichardt in product management about some joint marketing programs and some new products.  How about low cost replacement batteries for hand held computers?  More on both those subjects later.

Anyway, the gang at Scansource couldn’t have been more gracious (that good old southern hospitality) and if you have the chance I strongly recommend you pay them a visit.

By the way, it is 841 miles from Greenville SC to Medfield MA.  We left at 5PM and arrived home at 8AM.  The good news is that that is the only way to drive through Charlotte, Richmond, Washington DC, Baltimore and NYC without getting crushed in traffic.  The bad news is that because it is dark you don’t get to see much of this beautiful country in which we live.