My daughter and I had an excellent experience with Modern Press -- A+++…read more
THE JOB: My young daughter just started a small business and she needed a small number of custom stickers printed...3000 stickers for her packaging (1000 each of 3 different sizes), 2 colors, die cut to a custom size. She had her digital files ready for a printer. Since she's a minor and a high school student, I helped her get all of this stuff done.
THE QUOTE: We quickly found that her printing job was in a customer service black hole. Mostly, the problem was the die cutting. Her job was too big and complex for strip mall places like FedEx Office and for small mom & pop Twin Cities print shops. And her job was too small for big printers like Japs-Olson. We got a quote on-line with Jakprints too. They gave us what I call a "screw you" quote of $1500 because they didn't really want to do her job. What? That would cost $1.50 per container! That's more than she pays for the container itself!
THE REFERRAL: A friend referred us to Modern Press. He said that if anyone in the Twin Cities would do it, it's Modern Press. Wow, what a great referral. They did the whole job for just under 700 bucks. And even though this is a small job for them, they treated us like royalty! The owner, Kelley Frain, was informative, helpful, and very nice to us. He spent a lot of time with us, and he gave us a tour of the facility and a brief history of his company.
FAQS: Modern Press keeps prices low by, among other things, not having a graphics department. (So you have to provide your design files ready to go.) And they don't have a big sales staff. (The owner is the only sales person.) Kelley is a second generation owner at Modern Press, started in 1980. And Kelley is also the fourth generation printer in his family. Great-grandpa was a printer too. Apparently, printer ink pumps through the veins of the Frain family!
MORE FAQS: In addition to doing nearly every type of printing you can think of, they have a mailing service. They seem to do nearly everything, big or small. (Check out their display rack when you visit.) Kelley told us that currently, on the small size, they're working on several wedding invitation jobs with only about 200 pieces each. But they also have a multi-million dollar job for Revlon that will fill several semi-trailer trucks with printed material. Wow!
Thanks for a job well done and for treating us so well, Modern Press!
-Daddy Maxx Retro