About Peter The Printer and Plum Grove Printers, Inc.

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It all began a long, long time ago . . . before PC computers, before cell phones, before even fax machines – in the year 1980. My wife Sue was pregnant with our first child, and I was working as a traveling salesman. With a new baby on the way, I didn’t want to be on the road three weeks each month and miss her growing up. Having worked summers through high school and college at my Dad’s ad agency, I knew a bit about printing, design, and graphics, and I knew something about advertising and sales, too. I decided to go into the printing business.

Quick Printing was the hot new business in those days; there was a print shop on every corner with “speedy” or "fast” or “PDQ” in the name, like bagel and frozen yogurt shops in the '90s, and coffee and sandwich shops today. People did not want to wait for slow commercial presses to print forms or brochures, and with the invention of big copiers by Xerox and Kodak they no longer had to. Quick printers filled the copying needs of small businesses, who could not afford these hot new machines. And so the first of December, 1980, saw the birth both of my daughter Kara and of Plum Grove Printers. From a tiny storefront in booming Schaumburg, Illinois, Plum Grove Printers started serving the northwest Chicago suburbs. I was the entire staff. Printing and delivering letterheads, envelopes, and business cards, we did about $50,000 in sales that first year. My taxable take-home pay was $125 dollars – for the year. It came out to pennies an hour but I was learning my trade. By 1984 I had enough money to join the local chamber of commerce. Instead of using my real name (the somewhat boring "Lineal"), I filled in my name as "Peter the Printer." After this the mail came addressed that way, and I assumed my new identity.

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Twenty-five years later, we continue to reinvent ourselves, adding more services and products, and finding ways to take even better care of our clients (some of whom date back to those heady early-’80s). We have grown from a Quick Printer into a full-scale Business Printer doing design work, digital printing, offset and commercial printing, bindery, and mailing for businesses, associations, schools, and churches all over Chicagoland and the nation. We have a dedicated staff of almost 30 (with four full-time designers), and plan on tripling our production space to nearly 30,000 square feet next year. We've been named one of the Top 100 North American Printers four years running by Quick Print Magazine, and have a decorated and environmentally-friendly history that makes us proud.

This webstore marks the latest evolution of our business – a place where we share our knowledge of printing with you, and lead you to discover better printing values. As you might imagine, I am an “ink on paper” kind of guy and have tried to forge a webstore that is easy and intuitive, even for folks like me. If you should have any feedback (suggestions or, heaven forfend, troubles), please do write me a message at Peter@PeterThePrinter.net. We want to work for you.

Sincerely,

Peter “the Printer” Lineal Founder, Plum Grove Printers, Inc.
www.PeterthePrinter.net