This is a tad off the theme, but it may help someone. Many moons ago, the Christmas Shopping Season began Friday after Thanksgiving. For retail stores to have toys on their shelves, those toys had to be in the retail chains' distribution centers by the Monday before Thanksgiving so the individual store's orders could be picked, loaded and trucked to be at every store no later than Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Then, depending on the store's schedule, the shelves would either be stocked Wednesday evening or the evening of Thanksgiving. To be in the distribution centers by Monday before Thanksgiving, the manufacturer had to ship those orders no later than the Friday before Thanksgiving. Which means the week of Thanksgiving, toy manufacturer's warehouses were all but empty.
In 1975 Kenner Toys was talking with Flying Tiger Airlines about a 747 charter bringing the previous three week's production of toys from Hong Kong to Cincinnati to arrive the first part of the week before Thanksgiving.
John in Lansing, ILL
