Okay, I’ve been a little quiet on the blog given I worked the Maricopa County Home & Garden show Friday through Sunday, all day. It’ s been a busy three days and hopefully the work will prove worth it in time.
Through it, I saw some interesting vendor products at the show and will highlight just a few of them here later this week. Overall, the show was quieter than what I expected and that’s probably due to the confluence of several events including the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, Barrett Jackson auction, and the Arizona Cardinals game today.
By the way, go Cardinals! Who would ever have believed that the Cardinals would make history and be going to the SuperBowl! Now, even though I was working, I was able to watch the game. We had an internet connection beaming the game to a laptop. So, I got to enjoy it too.
From the standpoint of the show, it seemed that there was a lot of simple products. I saw interesting products for your home that weren’t complex but appeared rather straightforward in purpose and design.
There were several solar products companies which I was very happy to see. These companies offer solar arrays for your home in order to generate electricity and sell offsets back to the grid. The companies did have a harder sell as the technology remains significantly expensive and the payback on residential solar typically stretches over five years. However, I know that there are researchers and companies working on newer solar technologies in order to crack the economics of solar. In my opinion, the vendor that can effectively and inarguable show a 4 year payback period for solar will find themselves very busy in the future.
There were numerous landscape companies there. In fact, some built elaborate structures and displays that one would think would be meant to stay but that would in fact be torn down after the show (I am talking concrete, stucco, paint, with fountains and other touches). The landscape companies clearly put a lot of energy, time and money to create their displays.
I saw the Phoenix Police Department’s booth and watched how busy it was as it promoted a collection of community safety programs to attendees. I would have to say this booth was rather successful in generating traffic and interest at the show.
An unusual moment was when a Merrill Lynch employee approached my booth and introduced himself and explained how they now offer mortgages, something I would never have guessed to hear a year ago. Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank of America when it became clear that Merrill Lynch was in trouble and needed a suitor.
As for what folks talked mostly to me about, it was about the market in general and the issues with foreclosures. People also expressed concern for what their homes were worth with the market downturn. In some sense, I think that many people weren’t at the show because they don’t have discretionary money to spend anymore. It’s dried up due in large part to the abuses and woes of the market we currently have.
But most importantly, from watching attendees and talking to vendors, folks weren’t buying much. The vendors were happy for the sales they were getting even if they were down. They didn’t have unrealistic expectations for their performance at the show. I did feel that the vendors were working hard and glad for what they got out of it. Earning something, though not great, was much better than earning nothing.
Folks were very friendly at the show and that made it pleasant. So, the time did go by somewhat quickly, and in the end, I enjoyed the show.
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