From  my home office in Skokie, IL, I present strange and/or mildly funny (but totally true) Stories of Distribution, Part 1 (because there will be a Part 2, the next time I can’t think of another blog topic).

Because of traffic and traffic controllers (a.k.a ticket writers) in downtown Chicago, speed is critical when putting magazines into newsboxes. Once, Louie double-parked by a long row of boxes. We jumped out, filled our box and sprinted around opposite ends of the boxes back to our truck. Preoccupied with traffic, we proceeded to run directly into each other, knocking us both down. We quickly regained our balance (and senses), but not before seeing several other drivers snickering at our Keystone Cop-like behavior.

It’s not unusual to lock oneself out of a vehicle, but years back I managed to lock myself in one. I was using a rented cargo van. For some reason, the cargo area inside was caged. At around 3 a.m. in the Rush Street area of Chicago, I climbed into the cage to do some rearranging. The cage doors promptly locked with no way of opening them from the inside. I pounded on the van’s back window, but nobody was around to set me free. Eventually, I was able to pick the inside lock to free myself.

One time we were distributing a special issue for one of our clients. The issue was actually 2 separate magazines which were shrinkwrapped together. During the routine weekly checking, in one newsbox, we found the magazines had been unwrapped and separated into 2 very neat stacks of 150 of each magazine. Considering the time, effort and tedium, who possibly would have done such a thing? And why? Of course, instead of just forgetting about this, I spent the rest of the day trying to wrap my addled brain around it.\I know, the life of a Distribution Specialist seems like it would be all glamour, but as you have just read, it does have its share of oddball moments, just like any other mundane job. Sometime in the future I will share some tales of my wild adventures in exotic locales such as Kokomo (IN), Waukesha (WI), Novi (MI) and Dubuque (IO).

– John Wroblewski, distribution specialist