2.6.08

So the New York show.  Getting here and actual set up were the traditional chaotic morass of things as usual.  Canceled/rescheduled/re-rescheduled flight, problems with set up, with shipments, with contracts, miscellaneous charges for people doing nothing - $125 for a less than 30 second inspection of my lights, $300 for them not putting carpet in our booth (keep in mind it's a shipping pier - there is no carpet on the concrete floor), completely blocked aisles, neighbors knocking other neighbors stuff down, neighbors encroaching on their neighbor’s spaces, shouting matches between exhibitors, between the people that work at the pier, between the exhibitors and the pier workers – all the usual set up stuff.  This time I have a video of the way the place looks before and after.  Unfortunately I did it early in the morning when no one was around, so you miss the general din of set up, but it will give you the general idea. 

The show itself was a bit below average.  In talking to other exhibitors, it was anywhere from quite bad, worst show ever or at best average.  But what would you expect.  It's a bad economy, people are nervous, shop owners want to sell their stock rather than buy new, untested stuff. It all makes sense.  So that being said, I am happy enough to get by with a perfectly average show.  We had a lot of new things that people were quite excited about, and there was a lot of traffic – more than I had seen before, just a lot of information gathering rather than order placing.  That’s ok.  I’m the same way.  Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather that people were writing orders, but I can empathise. I don’t really want to have a lot of investment in new inventory, and hopefully just enough stock in the things I sell to fill orders.  I have a feeling as the year moves on, things should loosen up, shops will move through old inventory, and buying will get back into stride, hopefully in time for the High Point show.  There was also the company of other people who sell in the same category or price range.  If you eliminate the people who always say business is great, even when it's terrible (an obvious issue of someone not dealing with reality all that well), everyone had a less than average show.  Strangely enough the last day that is typically a dull day, it was actually quite busy which sounded like it pulled a lot of the vendors up to an average show rather than a completely useless one.

I had some good meals, most notably at a great restaurant called Brasserie on 42nd street, one night was smoked salmon, fresh bread, aged gouda (that I cut with a credit card as there was no silverware in the hotel),  and herring. . . .this whole paragraph is going ot be on what I ate at night, so I suggest if you are not a gustatory kind of person, skip it.  The next night is always a meal I look forward to when in New York – Korean.  The whole small dishes that you get before the entrée automatically:  kimchee, spicy kimchee, smoked fish, marinated tofu (I never liked tofu until I had it at this place), marinated pickles, garlic and peppers, and other things.  Then the traditional cooked meats of your choice.  The next night was not all that interesting:  pizza that was good enough, but it was at an old institution just off Times Square (think Super Bowl Sunday in New York City).  Times Square being a place I avoid like the plague, but while waiting to meet up with my friends, I stood on the island in the middle of the square and watched the first quarter of the Super Bowl on the jumbo tron which I have to admit was kind of cool.

As I said, the last day was not too bad at the show, and nice and busy, off to the airport only to wait another hour and a half for my delayed flight home.  That is the show in a nutshell.