I went to the annual Model Train show today, at the MSU pavilion in East Lansing, Michigan. I haven’t been to others elsewhere, but this seems pretty sizable to me. A number of clubs had operating layouts. MANY tables of people selling locos and rolling stock, books, structures, railroad stuff. Everything from tiny Z to garden size. $6 doesn;t break the bank.
I chatted with some nice folks. I asked a guy if anyone still sold the old Athearn rubber band drive locos, at which point he picked up an RDC he had with exactly that.
It is a one day show, 10AM to 4PM, just six hours. At 70, I am good for wandering about an hour before I run out of steam myself. SO I drove up there arriving about 3PM. There was my hour before it closed. Except many vendors were already packing up. By 3:30 a lot of empty tables were showing. Some vendors were sitting behind their tables with their goods all in stacked brown cardboard boxes. No way to know what was in there.
In fairness, many vendors were open until close. (I left at 4PM) But I must register my disappointment that for a one day show of only six hours duration, so many vendors had already called it a day. And I will contact the show organizers.
So does anyone share my frustration at this, its it common? or do I just have unrealistic expectations.I have attended this show in several years past, and while any show might have a few early closers, I don;t recall it being this blatant before.
It’s common for about any type of event, whether for show or for sale.
I call that deal time It’s when you run thru the place throwing out offers on stuff to see if they want to take it home or take what your offering.
At most shows the earlier times equal bigger sales and more dollars spent and it wanes as the day goes on. Once it starts drying up, its time to start packing up.
It’s actually a marketing tool, and it’s also a market. So, like Ye Olde Farmer’s Market on a Saturday morning somewhere/anywhere, the early birds get the pick of everything. You can be sure that the vendors and displayors were in place and set up about half an hour before the show opened, and even then they had many hungry eyes peering through the keyholes.
Nearer to closing, it becomes a mad rush for the exits. People know when they have had their best run-hour, and then it’s all downhill. The vendors must want to get home and to salvage what’s left of their weekend without waiting for all those cars and vans to exit the parking lot in good order.
If a “show” is advertised for six hours, the sellers should be present and selling the whole time. It’s dishonorable to do otherwise.
I’ve sold at shows, and I never pack up early. Never. I might bring a book or something, just in case things are incredibly slow. But I made an implied contract to be available the whole time. So I’m there the whole time. And so is my stuff.
I’ve also been involved in modular setup at shows. What if WE just decided we’d had enough and left an hour early? How’d THAT look? D’ya think we’d be invited back?
Thanks, Ed. My feelings too. I understand WHY vendors might quit early, but seems to me they signed up for a time slot. Imagine if your local restaurant closed up an hour early, or the gas station. Or the club car on your train. Yes, many if not most had a price marked down sign. I didn’t go late to get a price, I went because I naively thought it would be a full show in progress.
Apparently next year, if it says 10-4, I must assume that means 9:30-2:30.
It is a time vs. money thing to many vendors. Unless the show organizer insists vendors stay open until closing, many start thinking about packing up when people and sales start slacking off. They feel that the extra half hour would not result in much more sales compared to earlier in the day.
Maybe the shows should simply open at 10, with no closing time. So the vendors would leave whenever they wanted, sorta like they do already. And the attendees wouldn’t feel mis-informed.
Enzoamps,
I have been a train show dealer for 25 years; as such I have been to hundreds of train shows.
In this market of train show retail, it’s all about the economics. Most small train shows need all the dealers they can find to make a good profit. Without dealers, there’s no show. In this kind of small show market, the show won’t threaten to disinvite a dealer over packing up early (especially if it’s really slow). The dealer will simply leave whenever they want, and next year they’ll be back, no questions asked.
At a big show, or at the biggest show (Springfield), there’s actually a long waiting list for dealers to get into the show. No dealer at Springfield wants to jeopordize their table space by leaving early because it can take years on the waiting list to get in. The Springfield Show reminds dealers that all tables are to remain open for the entire show, that leaving early can result in a disinvite for next year and a return to the waiting list. Dealers comply because the show is such a money maker for every dealer that they’d be foolish to risk it (I know one dealer who told me that Springfield was 30% of his annual train show income).
Do I pack up early at small shows? Yep, but then we usually hold off until the last 30 min. or so even when it’s dead. Packing up a full hour or more before the end of the show is a little much for me, but I don’t really begrudge a dealer that does.
Look it at from a dealer’s perspective. After spending $25 to $100 per table, some of these guys drive a hundred miles or more in a gas-guzzling truck/van to get to the show, getting up early on a Sunday morning after packing the van/trailer the day/night before. They get to the show an hour or three before the show opens to set up, and it’s very busy getting everything just right. Then you spend the next severa
I have had two sellers to tell me if you don’t make money in the first four hours you’re better off to start packing and call it a lost.
Six hours may seem petty but,its far more not only for the dealer reasons that Paul pointed out but,for the host. The night before the show you spend time setting up tables and chairs and waiting for the early bird dealers to set up plus if there are modular layouts they need time to set up.The host has already 8-10 hours into prepping the show. Show day begins the next morning at 6 am and the dealers start arriving.After the show there is clean up.
I can fully understand why a dealer packs up early since business is slow and there’s only a handful of browsing customers left and no new attendee has walked through the door in the last hour…
Your best bet is to go to the show early and not wait until the last possible hour.
There is a old saw among fishermen and I believe it works for just about any hobby or sport… If you wanna catch fish then you gotta get going. What that means is “Go and get it done and not fool around wasting time”.
Pauls experience echo’s mine in retail. The people shopping the afternoon of Christmas eve have no idea what size Uncle Charlie wears, they expect a much broader selection and they don’t want to spend any money.
The people who go shopping in the midst of a huricanne or blizzard are just plain weird. They don’t want to spend any money either.
If you want the full experience of any show, get there earlier. The last hour of any show things have been picked over and people are thinking of leaving.
As was noted, some vendors travel much further distances than those attending the show, so they are under a different set of pressures. I’m not 70 (yet) but driving after dark is kinda iffy and I try to avoid it myself, so this time of year, that’s a factor for some, too. Better safe than sorry, even if you might miss a last minute sale or two.
WHERE IS THE BEEF! LION cam in here looking for BEEF. RARE JUCICY TENDER BEEF!
Saturday December 4th is the Open House, here at the Abbey. It is from 1 to 4 PM. Bread is usually sold outin an hour or so, then the customers come looking into the wine cellar. I NEVER sell out the wine cellar as I take in 20 palets of wine just a month earlier. Still by 3:30 everything is essentilally done, the Bread room is closed and it is just the wince cellar and the gift shop that carry on. I’ll continue to sell even after 4PM, since I sell wine whenever anybody come to buy wine (Except Sunday Morning, when the law does not allow it).
The only show that I went to, I was there for the whole thing. This was the Transit and Traction show held at the Rutger’s Campus in New Jersey. That is where I bought my first subway train. The guy was asking $100.00 but since I was the only one taking a real interest in it, I eventually got it for $90, which was not a bad deal since the list on in (in those days) was $120.
Sellers at such shows are free agents, they pay for their space, and the promoters do not mind if the leave early, they got their money, and if the venue can start cleaning up early everybodyu (almost) is happy.
Thanks for the considered replies. Apparently I am in the minority. Strikes me as an agreement broken, but that is just me. I wonder if the club operating session is scheduled from 6 until 10, and I get bored after 8, I could just leave my train on the track and walk away. MAke it a two hour sale and be done with it then. As a customer, I don’t take kindly to someone who says he will be there until 4 and then leaves at 3. If I drive my family 20 miles to an 8 o’clock movie and find they decided not to show it so they could all go home, I’d not return any time soon.
Actually I agree with you to the extent that they should let people in for free for the last hour of the show. Maybe knowing that free-bes will be entering late will keep vendors in place for that hour.
No, not really. It’s not just you. Every mature adult who is trusted by at least one other person knows that contracts, promises, and pacts have to be honoured in a civilized society. If we couldn’t trust one another to honour our agreements, we’d be a much different culture…if you could even call it one.
However, this is an informal arrangement a best. As Paul said earlier, the vendor is a client as well, and expects a return on ‘investment’ that the venue manager couldn’t possibly guarantee. As an extreme example, the day of the early spring train show there’s a nasty blizzard that dumps 10" of snow over four whole hours. In deep drifts. What could/should the venue do, or what should all the vendors do, if the thing is predictably a terrible bust because only six snowmobilers and five snowshoers manage to beat their paths to the door during the entire opening timeline?
Or, after two hours of no customer interest, but with one hour left of his paid time at a table, the vendor understands that there are probably not going to be any more sales, and he’s accomplished most or all of his expectations anyway. He ought to call it a day. If it were me, I’d do the obituary thing…a public announcement that those dallying had better get to X’s table within 15 minutes because he’s closing his enterprise for the day.
If a movie theater decided not to show the movie, it would be tantamount to the train show, as a group, also deciding not to have it. At all. That sounds like an apples and oranges comparison with the problem you raised at the outset…the odd vendor packing it in when things go dead…AFTER having run his table for several hours, productive or not.
I find this behaviour disgraceful! When a train show is advertised to be open until a set hour, I expect all exhibitors and dealers to be present until the advertized closing date. Packing up early is a slap in the face of the customer.
I don´t understand the folks in here finding excuses for this behaviour.
Having been a member of a group sponsoring an annual show for twenty years, and taking part in over 100 other shows as part of a group exhibit I feel that packing up early is unacceptable.
Our club layout kept trains running until closing time. We expected dealers to remain open until closing time.
We took an hour to teardown and pack our trailer, and sometimes a two hour drive home. If you can’t handle it, don’t take part.
I think it’s wrong to leave early unless you have completely sold out. I never leave early. I paid for all of those hours to sell and I’m going to sell. If someone next to me leaves early I take over their space and make the money the left behind. The later in the day, the better deals I give knowing that the best items have already been taken. Also I see a rush at the end when the other vendors buy items from me.
It’s the chicken-or-the-egg Catch 22 kind of thing. The crowds don’t stick around till 4 because the vendors have packed up, and the vendors pack up because the crowds don’t stick around. Ideally everyone should stick around with high enthusiasm till the very end, but I have no expectations things will be that way. I go early. Of course, the early crowd is still in the coffee-and-donut phase so there’s always the possibility of sticky fingerprints on stuff . . . but that’s another matter.
It’s when you run thru the place throwing out offers on stuff to see if they want to take it home or take what your offering.