Heading for the Philadelphia Home Show

[Bonibelle]

My neighbor has a friend that just bought a new tub at the Philadelphia Home Show, so I will scope out the offerings. I haven't been to a home show in 25 years..should be fun.  and Dax, Big John Runyan will be there!!

[dax]

Bring Big John a large coffee and give him a chest bump.  

Have fun at the show!

[Spatech_tuo]

I haven't been to a home show in 25 years..should be fun.  

It should be interesting; I think you'll find that home shows have changed a lot since you were a little girl!

[hottubdan]

Say hi from Dan to my friends in the Hot Spring booth.  I think Joe Kennedy and Bill Schaup will be there.

[Bonibelle]

The home show was fun...Darn Dan, I bet  one of the Hot Springs guys I talked to was your friend. The Hot Springs display was awesome as was Jacuzzi and Sundance. They were the three tubs represented.

I had a great conversation with a district rep from Hot Springs, he said he was retired and just loved the spa industry and was a customer that wanted to work for Hot Springs. When I mentioned (proudly) that I knew the Hot Springs Dealer of the Year's number one sales guy in Longview Texas...he was impressed!!

Hey I was impressed. I saw the new stone surrounds for the tubs, very nice and Hot Springs also has steps to match. My husband was so taken with the sound system and this gentleman explained that it could be added later (there is room left inside of the shell to place the transducer speakers)..AND you can add on external speakers to boot! The sound was great. This guy was so nice that I had an after thought and ran back to tell him the success that I have had for my Lyme. He said he actually had a customer ask him that during the show. So if you all see Hot Tubs touting the health benefits for treating Lyme...you can thank me  

I also had a nice conversation with the Sundance rep. His name was Bruce and he was equally enthuastic about his tubs. He had sold stickers on about 90% of his tubs, so he was also very happy with this show. According to him, the industry in the East has not suffered from the housing problems and his sales figures were up from last year. We shared with him that we have a Marquis tub and he said it was an excellent tub and he is a personal friend of a Marquis VP. He also was happy to hear about my success with treating Lyme. He wanted me to compare the benefits of a tub verses a sauna. Since I have Lyme friends who went the sauna route, I could give him a pretty good acessment.  The tub is the way to go...hands down!!  

Jacuzzi had a large display but the sales guys were all busy and I didn't get a chance to talk to them. By then my husband was pretty tired of looking at things that we weren't in the market for and he wasn't willing to hang around. I tried to find Chad's tub..but there must have been 10 tubs there..The Jacuzzi colors were great.

My husband did comment that he didn't like the SS jets on anyof the tubs. But he works with 316 stainless that can be sterilized repeatedly and he says they are 304 or less. He was surprised that they would hold up successfully in the chemicals in a hot tub. Just his opinion... I guess only time will tell.

I would say this home show was probably a big success for each of those brands. Customers got great deals and the displays were impressive because each of the three brands had plenty of tubs for selection. I thought it probably was a good idea that they were not located near each other too.

And to top it all off, My hubby got his Eagles jacket signed by Big John and so he was a happy guy. Dax, I passed on the chest bump..he is very tall and I am pretty short and that wouldn't be a true chest bump  

Oh yeah, there were gutter guys, shingle guys, siding and window guys, floor guys....but by far the most impressive displays...were the hot tubs!

[morecowbell]

The Jacuzzi booth that was too busy for you to get to speak to anyone, is my company's location.
We are Niagara Pools and Spas.
We are at the show every year.
What spa did your neighbor purchase?

[Bonibelle]

It may have been that it was later in the day, but yeah, they were pretty busy and all of the sales people were engaged. I went there twice. It turns out my friend bought the Hot Springs with the stone surround. I am still not sure what model though!  Cowbell, who makes that huge swim spa?  That was pretty impressive.

[dax]

Did the Sundance booth feature any of its tubs with the stone cabinet?  Just wondering what they looked like.  I may have been tempted  had it been a 2007 option.

Glad to hear your hubby got Big John's autograph.

[Bonibelle]

We didn't walk all through the Sundance display because you could see from the isle that most had sold signs on them and the Sundance rep that I talked to met us as we walked to the first tub in that isle. I don't remember seeing the stone, sorry.

My husband has been at a new job for a year now and part of that job it to present at shows like this one for various segments of the pharmaceutical industry. So he critiqued the way that each of the company reps from the various displays  worked their booths.
We walked away from from several displays because the reps were on their cell phones or just sat there bored as we looked at their booth. the hot tub reps on the other hand were great.  

[East_TX_Spa]

Just to put your husband's mind at ease Boni, HotSpring does use 316 stainless on all of their jet escutcheons.  While some manufacturers may only be considering the esthetics (as it relates to cost) of their product for the present, we are wanting our customers to remain happy further down the road.

It sounds like you met Mr. Bill at the home show.  One of his friends worked with me all weekend at our local boat show.  I've never met Bill but have heard he is a really nice man.  It sounds to me like he truly is.

Your friend either bought a Vista or a Grandee as those are the only two spas the stone cabinets are available for at the moment.  We'll hopefully get some in on our next truck.  I can't wait!

Term

[IL Parrothead]

Hey Term, those pics we've seen of the new Grandee -- have they added new jets, or just changed the look of the neck jets?  Something looks different.

[East_TX_Spa]

Hey Term, those pics we've seen of the new Grandee -- have they added new jets, or just changed the look of the neck jets?  Something looks different.

I'm sorry for the confusion Parrothead...someone did change the jets, but it was not HotSpring.

BTW Boni, tell your friend congratulations on their new HS spa!  I'm sure another will be along shortly to congratulate them as well, lest I sense some hypocrisy afoot.

Term

[morecowbell]

The swim spa we had at the show is made by Vita/DM industries.
http://www.vitabathandspa.com/swimspas.htm
There was an enormous amount of interest in it.
We even managed to sell a couple.
By the way congratulate your neighbor on they're new tub (lest I be accused of hypocricy.)

[Bonibelle]

Pshew, glad he was talking about you  :-/..had me worried

[IL Parrothead]

I'm sorry for the confusion Parrothead...someone did change the jets, but it was not HotSpring.

Term

I was wondering if there was some PhotoShopping afoot!   8-)