Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Petroliana News VENDORS COME FIRST

Good points Dave. You said yourself that you allow selling starting Friday morning. I don't think anyone would complain about that as long as the vendors stay the adverstised show dates and hours. The trouble is at shows like Columbus and Iowa Gas where dealers sell for a day or two before the advertised show date and pack up and leave before the advertised show is over. The vendors that do that generally spend the same number of days selling, so why not sell during the advertised show hours. The early selling is the root cause of vendors leaving early. There's not much anyone can do about early selling but show promoters can (and should) require their vendors to stay until the end of the show.
I like the way they do it at Peotone. Set up Saturday afternoon. Thats when the dealer trading takes place, and now there are Saturday buyers for those that want to pay up for the privledge. The show is a Sunday show and inside vendors have to stay through the advertised show hours.
I own a remodeling company. I use several suppliers (vendors) and a few sub contractors (also considered vendors by some). My CUSTOMERS come FIRST. I certainly don't put my vendors ahead of my customers. I haven't seen a company that could survive let alone prosper without customers. There was a pretty smart guy from Arkansas that did pretty well for himself in retail. He called his customers BOSS. Who was this guy? Sam Walton. Vendors are customers in as much as they rent space from you, so you do need to take care of them. But don't forget your other customers, the buying public. Shows like Iowa Gas and Columbus can survive on income from the vendors. Smaller shows need the income from the buying public to make it. At Peotone the income from the buyers is nearly as much as what the vendors pay. (well it was before the price increase).