Home show

[Chas]

I don't do home shows, but we have one in town this weekend.

I just got back.

Sundance and Jacuzzi. Best-looking tubs, right up front near the gate.
D1put their slab-topped white tubs in the front row. Ugly.
Phoenix - Where is the 'local' dealer?
Softub    
And some brand-x unit I didn't even recognize - wood siding, wood gazebos and speakers set down into the corners without a drain fitting: they had an inch of rainwater sitting on the speakers.

Most of the tubs were outside - CalSpa was inside. Everyone I talked to said "Best" at least a dozen times in their presentation.

Rain is predicted all weekend...

[ggwagner]

Why don't you do shows??

[Tatooed_Lady]

Most of the tubs were outside - CalSpa was inside. ...Rain is predicted all weekend...

 

Maybe they're afraid their product will get wet....?  

[Chas]

Why don't you do shows??

Cost is huge - results poor. My joke is that it's easy to make a small fortune at a home show, you just start with a large fortune. Also- folks tend to expect a 'deal.' I have tried hackin' a couple of hundred off the regular price, adding a cover lift, step, ozone and extra-large chems, but folks seemed to walk away and buy accross the isle where they are told "Two thousand off our already low prices."

I never could bring myself to drop the prices at a show when my regular customers trusted me to give THEM a good price in the showroom. I always did offer a discount on the show models - the actual, scratched, kicked, sat-in, sometimes wet displayed tubs from the show, and I usually sold just those.

Other than that, I was gaining weight eating the kettle corn and fried twinkies.

[Chas]

Maybe they're afraid their product will get wet....?  

Cal Spa has been in that same place since I used to do the show. In fact, I was one space away. Unfortunately, the one space was a double, and it usually had somebody with a microphone and a cold.

They still have a 20X40 space, same as I used to rent. My price went up to $5500 for just the space - which worked out to about a buck per person who came to the show. Ventura is really an oversized small town I guess.

[East_TX_Spa]

Do what everybody else does, tell the customers that the spas sell in the showroom for $15,300 but they can get it at the show for $9,500.

Oh, waitaminute, you're a HS dealer.  I hear you guys are all boy scouts.  No wonder you can't sell any spas.

John Doe

[HotTubMan]

Oh, waitaminute, you're a HS dealer.  I hear you guys are all boy scouts.  

You know, I used to believe that. Then you showed on the forum.....

[hottubdan]

I visited our local home show yesterday.

Inside:
Sundance 4 spas
Jacuzzi 6
D1 2 down 3 or 4 on edge
Bullfrog 4-6
Coleman 4-6, 1 gazebo

Outside:
Marquis 3 Everyday
Freeflow many (1 gazebo)
Softtub 1 or 2
Sensations with their 20 x 60 presentation

Too many spas for a successful selling environment in Santa Rosa.  I suppose good for consumers to go and see a lot and get confused.

[HotTubMan]

I worked a homeshow the last two days (in the store today).

There was us, Hydropool
Coast
Arctic
Dynasty
and Cal Spa

[Chas]

You guys who saw Cal Spa at the home show - was it a local dealer or the company road show?

[HotTubMan]

You guys who saw Cal Spa at the home show - was it a local dealer or the company road show?

Fairly local. The dealer would be a 30 minute drive from where the show is.

Don't forget Chas, I am in Canada. Cal Spa operates through a distributor here. I believe they market here through a buying group called SIMA. The dealer in question is called West Coast Importers, who until 2 years ago was a Catalina dealer.

[East_TX_Spa]

You know, I used to believe that. Then you showed on the forum.....

I did get kicked out of cub scouts after 2 weeks.....

Terminator

[J._McD]

Cost is huge - results poor. My joke is that it's easy to make a small fortune at a home show, you just start with a large fortune. Also- folks tend to expect a 'deal.' I have tried hackin' a couple of hundred off the regular price, adding a cover lift, step, ozone and extra-large chems, but folks seemed to walk away and buy accross the isle where they are told "Two thousand off our already low prices."
I never could bring myself to drop the prices at a show when my regular customers trusted me to give THEM a good price in the showroom. I always did offer a discount on the show models - the actual, scratched, kicked, sat-in, sometimes wet displayed tubs from the show, and I usually sold just those.

Other than that, I was gaining weight eating the kettle corn and fried twinkies.

 

Chas makes a good point here.  Consumers seem to expect very large discounts, or at least they seem to think others offer and give "very large discounts" when honestly they really do not.  

Chas sells what is known to be a "good quality" line of spas that he must pay a premium for and when people "think" he can take a lot of money out of them just to sell them at a show, they are misled and fooled by the discount sellers who pay much lower wholesale cost, "price" them in the quality category and then discount them to make them look like a bargain.  Consumers love it and are easily misled to think quality goods should have similar discounts when it is impossible.  That is why Chas has to pay a small fortune to make a small one.

What is the point of spending the money to be there, when shoppers can not recognize how they are being influenced by what they believe are "bargains".

[J._McD]

.
D1put their slab-topped white tubs in the front row. Ugly.

Chas, What is a "slab-topped" white tub?

[Mendocino101]

It is an interesting thought you are going to pay additional funds for a space and than have to set it up and deliver spas to stock it and than staff it above what it costs you to run your store and that somehow you will be able to provide a big "show discounts" it simply goes against common reasoning and sense yet many people want to believe it. Reality is you can afford to give someone a real "home show discount" at your store while others are spending the money to do the show. You can stay back at your place and run a genuine sale ....now the trick is will you get the traffic .....