the East Coast children's better apparel buyer's show was this past Sunday through Tuesday. Buyers from around the country, but mostly East Coast, and a lot of Chicago, show up to walk the aisles and buy for August delivery. Everyone expected a dour show that would be a ghost town. Some notes from the show:
show was well-attended, didn't really see a difference in foot traffic between this show and past ones.
Spirits in general were high, or more aptly put, normal.
I wrote more orders at this show than any one previous (out of 5)
Orders were deep (some of my customers doubled their previous orders with me) and broad.
Lot of returning customers (who have already paid for spring delivery with no drama) and picked up some new customers.
Traffic in stores is "good," could be better, but long time store customers are shopping out of loyalty.
A New England sales rep with whom I am friendly brought over 2 friends, a Dallas/Atlanta rep and a FL rep and both picked me up. It's hard enough to get reps in a good economy let alone a bad one!
Everyone I talked with was optimistic about the future. no pessimism at all.
These are principally small, Main Street specialty boutiques and small (4 to 15 location) department stores. I did not see Neiman's, Bloomingdales, etc. walking the aisles.
The new booth design was a hit. My NY rep point blank said my past booths sucked, on Thursday, show set up is Saturday. Had some old cubicle frames lying around so welded those up and make a rack out of 3/4 inch square tube and then buzzed it all, hung some Urban Dino-inspired black fabric on the walls.
Labor unions: they are evil. I wanted the top frame and corner pole removed from the booth. a 10 minute job to move the light bar and remove 4 allen head bolts. Total cost: $300 to remove the frame and $300 for the electrician to move the light bar. Great that Labor is sucking the blood out of Entrepreneurs. I declined but will be bringing a 4.5mm allen key with me next show.
Some pics.
