2016 Ohio State Fair

[wmccall]

In the hot tub glory days (2003 or so?) there use to be 7 or 8 hot tub manufacturers on display at the Ohio State Fair.  Sometime around 2010 (these are guesses from my feeble memory)  there were none.   This year,  MAAX did have two locations, and a new one for me a company called Matressfirm  was showing Beachcomber and Coast. That was my first time ever seeing a Beach.   That company will the plastic tubs with the built in hard covers was there, i didn't stop and look, but they did have a 5 person spa there.

[mjb]

I can give you one reason that there are not too many hot tub companies there.
Money !
Last year a rep from the Ohio State Fair called and asked if we wanted to be there.
I played along for a while to get what it would cost.
When she told me that it would be $ 40,000, I politely told her I would consider it.
However, there was no way we were going to fork over that kind of money.
We would have had to raise spa prices by hundreds of dollars just to cover
the costs associated with being there.
So we'll just stick to doing business here in our store.

[BullFrogSpasMN]

Big events can be a gamble, 40k for a state fair with a 1 mil + attendance isn't bad though...with all associated costs we pay around 25k for our big yearly homeshow booth. That said you need proper logistics, qualified staff to man the booth, plenty of coverage to still keep your store open during the event, etc etc a lot of work but the payoff can be massive.

[Hottubguy]

Big events can be a gamble, 40k for a state fair with a 1 mil + attendance isn't bad though...with all associated costs we pay around 25k for our big yearly homeshow booth. That said you need proper logistics, qualified staff to man the booth, plenty of coverage to still keep your store open during the event, etc etc a lot of work but the payoff can be massive.

Same here if i could do a event with a million people coming through. 40k isn't too much of a gamble. You do the Minneapolis state fair?  Heard that is a good one. I know a few people that sell at that show

[BullFrogSpasMN]

Big events can be a gamble, 40k for a state fair with a 1 mil + attendance isn't bad though...with all associated costs we pay around 25k for our big yearly homeshow booth. That said you need proper logistics, qualified staff to man the booth, plenty of coverage to still keep your store open during the event, etc etc a lot of work but the payoff can be massive.

Same here if i could do a event with a million people coming through. 40k isn't too much of a gamble. You do the Minneapolis state fair?  Heard that is a good one. I know a few people that sell at that show

Every year we try, unfortunately its ran like the Italian Mafia, lots of envelopes of cash being handed off to keep certain companies in, and certain companies like us out due to the high stakes and big payoff of the event...when I was selling Hot Springs I used to do the Iowa state fair, we would push 120+ units over 10 days..pure madness but a big payoff

edit: do you know the Jacuzzi team?

[mpkelley20]

Same here if i could do a event with a million people coming through. 40k isn't too much of a gamble. You do the Minneapolis state fair?  Heard that is a good one. I know a few people that sell at that show

The Big E in Springfield, MA had 1.34 million people last year.  Of course, that is 3 hours away from your store!  I find that Fair to be a lot of "as seen on TV" type stuff.  It's actually quite fun to go to though since all New England states are represented there. 

[Hottubguy]

Big events can be a gamble, 40k for a state fair with a 1 mil + attendance isn't bad though...with all associated costs we pay around 25k for our big yearly homeshow booth. That said you need proper logistics, qualified staff to man the booth, plenty of coverage to still keep your store open during the event, etc etc a lot of work but the payoff can be massive.

Same here if i could do a event with a million people coming through. 40k isn't too much of a gamble. You do the Minneapolis state fair?  Heard that is a good one. I know a few people that sell at that show

Every year we try, unfortunately its ran like the Italian Mafia, lots of envelopes of cash being handed off to keep certain companies in, and certain companies like us out due to the high stakes and big payoff of the event...when I was selling Hot Springs I used to do the Iowa state fair, we would push 120+ units over 10 days..pure madness but a big payoff

edit: do you know the Jacuzzi team?

I know a few of the guys on the jacuzzi team and a few that are in the maax team but actually sell cal spas at the Minnesota show

[Hottubguy]

Same here if i could do a event with a million people coming through. 40k isn't too much of a gamble. You do the Minneapolis state fair?  Heard that is a good one. I know a few people that sell at that show

The Big E in Springfield, MA had 1.34 million people last year.  Of course, that is 3 hours away from your store!  I find that Fair to be a lot of "as seen on TV" type stuff.  It's actually quite fun to go to though since all New England states are represented there.

I like going to the big e and checking it out. Can't imagine ever doing that fair. Lots of hot tubs there thought. Hot springs, jacuzzi, sundance, maax and master are there every year. Prices aren't anything special. I've shopped them all. I know a few guys who sell their and they definetely do good numbers but I have no desire to warranty a tub 5-6 hours from my store

[wmccall]

I can give you one reason that there are not too many hot tub companies there.
Money !
Last year a rep from the Ohio State Fair called and asked if we wanted to be there.
I played along for a while to get what it would cost.
When she told me that it would be $ 40,000, I politely told her I would consider it.
However, there was no way we were going to fork over that kind of money.
We would have had to raise spa prices by hundreds of dollars just to cover
the costs associated with being there.
So we'll just stick to doing business here in our store.

You probably remember the days when the fair use to inflate their numbers to claim to be bigger than Texas, I don't think we have made 1 million people in a few years. Back when I first bought a tub there probably was 4 major players in the central Ohio area and there probably was more competition. (I know very little about the business part of your company)   But now I would guess 90% of the hot tubs sold within 50 miles of Columbus come from your business or Scioto Valley, so perhaps displaying here were perhaps (again total guess) 50% of the people attending might be from further away and not really potential customers.

[mpkelley20]

Same here if i could do a event with a million people coming through. 40k isn't too much of a gamble. You do the Minneapolis state fair?  Heard that is a good one. I know a few people that sell at that show

The Big E in Springfield, MA had 1.34 million people last year.  Of course, that is 3 hours away from your store!  I find that Fair to be a lot of "as seen on TV" type stuff.  It's actually quite fun to go to though since all New England states are represented there.

I like going to the big e and checking it out. Can't imagine ever doing that fair. Lots of hot tubs there thought. Hot springs, jacuzzi, sundance, maax and master are there every year. Prices aren't anything special. I've shopped them all. I know a few guys who sell their and they definetely do good numbers but I have no desire to warranty a tub 5-6 hours from my store

I go for the food!  LOL!

[Hottubguy]

Same here if i could do a event with a million people coming through. 40k isn't too much of a gamble. You do the Minneapolis state fair?  Heard that is a good one. I know a few people that sell at that show

The Big E in Springfield, MA had 1.34 million people last year.  Of course, that is 3 hours away from your store!  I find that Fair to be a lot of "as seen on TV" type stuff.  It's actually quite fun to go to though since all New England states are represented there.

I like going to the big e and checking it out. Can't imagine ever doing that fair. Lots of hot tubs there thought. Hot springs, jacuzzi, sundance, maax and master are there every year. Prices aren't anything special. I've shopped them all. I know a few guys who sell their and they definetely do good numbers but I have no desire to warranty a tub 5-6 hours from my store

I go for the food!  LOL!

My wife loves the fried dough!