Some Unhappy WEG Vendors

[DLee]

If you come in from the other entrance, where the Head of the Lake is basically what you see first, you will not go through the trade fair. Plenty of people came in from that way.
I can understand people not finding it at first, especially if you have been to Rolex and expected it to be familiar, it was laid out so totally different.
Stoneymeadow, I was working at BoB that crazy cold day the computer crashed, I’m glad it came out positive for you! I can’t say enough good about John Nunn. (And I’m Chance’s former owner, give him a treat for me!).

I did have more than one person ask me how to get to the trade fair early on, later in the Games not so much.

In the show world (art/craft) the shows that pop up on the outskirts are called ‘Scab Shows’. They can indeed be very good shows, or they can be Foam Snake shows.

[LisaB]

Has anyone asked John Nunn of BoB how his sales were???
He was PACKED the 2 days I was there.
Why?
Because he had all his catalog stuff and then some specialized WEG things there.
I’m not going to be making a decision on antique wood flooring at a vendor booth. Sorry!
Most of the vendors with the exception of BoB were ridiculous. I was all happy to see horseloverz and kerrits. But horseloverz didn’t have their sales on their garish tacky stuff that they have online, nope, just a few things of 2 lines of clothing that were expensive. Ditto on kerrits. I needed a pair of full seats and there’s a model of kerrits that fits me. They didn’t have my size in any of their lines and they were the models that don’t look good on me.
So, next time you spend 10k on a vendor booth, make sure you have products that people will buy.
DUH!!!
BoB smoked my cc because they had inventory and selection.

[DLee]

Lisa I talked to him yesterday on my way out. He said it was definitely worth it.

[Holly_Jeanne]

my experience

I didn’t have any trouble finding the trade fair. In fact, I went to WEG one afternoon specifically because I hadn’t done any shopping yet and wanted to. All I ended up buying was two Breyers ornaments and 3 saddle pads from BoB. (Oh and BoB, dressage riders like pads in fun colors too.) Everything else seemed pretty much out of my price range. I did go through the Big Ass Fans tent several times, including cutting through to go to the USDF, and yes, I browsed while I was cutting through. Sadly the Stubben Bridles that were a good price only were in cob size by the time I found them.

[slp]

Most of the things we bought were from BoB…great selection, every item we were looking for was in stock, and having the owner shaking hands with customers and acting as traffic director at the cash register line was an added plus. It was nice that there were representatives from some of the different product lines that they carry on site as well. I also had never seen any of the Nunn Finer brand in person, and was very impressed with the quality! Mr. Nunn now has himself a new customer that will go to their website first to order when we need more horse stuff!

[King_s_Ransom]

As a marketing person, business owner and frequent trade-show vendor … I do know that some business people are clueless about what to expect from a trade show, and if they have a disaster, it is usually their own fault.

For example, when I am an exhibitor, I NEVER sell anything. Our service is not one people purchase on the spur of a moment. We just go to meet people and let them meet us, talk about our services and their needs. We go to replenish our leads. Consequently, because we don’t really have a product to sell on-the-spot, and we are a relatively small company ($1 mill to $2 mill annual revenue) we have to avoid the uber-pricey venues. We have had to drop out of a couple venues that we used to go to every year because the price just went through the roof. The organizers were clearly pitching to the larger companies (in our industry, it’s the big banks and no, we cannot compete with them!). So, we pick our venues and we come out ahead.

If you did poorly at WEG, then my suggestion is to figure out what you did wrong and not blame the organizers. You may have missed your market (Mr. Jewelry Man – I see very few horse women draped in diamonds!), you may have brought the wrong product, you may have been over-priced or under-staffed. Whatever it was, you won’t learn anything by blaming WEG. Some people had success – what did they do right?

Another example – I had a little bit of trouble finding the bourbon-tasting. But, you know what? I wanted that Kentucky bourbon, so I found it. $10 for a small flight was high, but hey – it’s Kentucky bourbon! And, when I was there, they were pouring bourbon hand-over-fist, standing-room-only. Just goes to show – right product, right market!

[SR_Rider]

I guess I couldn’t understand why…since a great number of visitors to WEG attend ROLEX…the venue couldn’t have been similar to the venue at Rolex. That way, people could expect where the food, the trade fair, etc. would be and direct visitors accordingly. I was there 3 days and thought it was confusing.

[M_O_Connor]

[QUOTE=Spectrum;5148974]
After reading through pages of this thread, I kept wondering, “Where is this tent area they were talking about?” When I saw the comment above about the “Big Ass Fans” sign, I thought, “WOW, if that was the vendor area they are talking about, they DEFINITELY have a potential lawsuit on their hands.”

My sister and I were working at the WEG for nearly a week. We must have walked by the “Big Ass Fans” tent 20 times, each time chuckling about the business name and wondering at the fact that a fan company would have such a huge, expensive tent at the WEG. We also didn’t go in the tent because we had no use for a Big Ass Fan.

If I had been a vendor in that area I would have been livid. If we walked by there 20 times and never thought to go in (and we were avidly shopping at the time), you can imagine how many thousands of other people did the same thing.

-Spectrum.[/QUOTE]

We were there for two weeks-I got to the vendor area three times…the last day shopping for souvenirs for those at home, and had no clue the Big Ass Fan tent was anything but fans.

[Regal_Grace]

Exactly!!!

[QUOTE=M. O’Connor;5157021]
We were there for two weeks-I got to the vendor area three times…the last day shopping for souvenirs for those at home, and had no clue the Big Ass Fan tent was anything but fans.[/QUOTE]

I thought the same thing to when I saw “BIG ASS FANS” Just thought it was fans. I was only there for XC day and I passed that tent a few times. Just as I was about to leave (say about 6:45pm) I went in the tent to get out of the rain. Totally surprised to see an assortment of vendors (Dover was there along with the lovely ladies running the COTH booth and the folks for TRF) I found the whole layout of the vendor thing confusing. Had trouble finding the WEG Alltech Souvenir shop too. But buy the time I found it was picked through with only XS, S or XL and loooooooong lines. NO THANKS.

[SmplySweet1021]

I actually wanted to shop but like others said I am not going to pick up hard wood flooring, or a new arena surface at a trade show. (Then again I have no use for either) My dad was interested in the hard wood flooring, and really liked it but I doubt he will go further than that interest.

I really wanted some more tack stores (It is a horse show after all :D) Any tack places including B.O.B was out of my small price range. It was unfortunate because I was looking for a good pair of shipping boots, and a few other smaller items for my boy.

[Sakura_Hill_Farm]

We, unlike others, were very happy with our shopping experience. We shopped the last day and were able to find one black Stubben bridle with flash for $65, one black bridle and martingale for $30 each, one pair Stubben leather open front boots and one pair Stubben leather ankle boots for $20 each, and a key chain for our rider. No lines at the cashier and no crowds pushing.

[mbm]

i wasn’t at WEG, but from having worked at/created events for a big portion of my life i can say that everything that has been mentioned is just poor planning and lack of experience on the organizers part.

it would of been easily avoidable if they had hired folks that knew what they were doing.

there is a very steep learning curve when you start from scratch

[Jewels09]

kings ransom you said it perfectly. We walked through all the shops. It was not hard to miss and I saw everything. The vendors who are complaining had the wrong product. Bit of Britain was successful b/c they had the same product that most of the vendors in aachen had- cheap everyday horse stuff. matching ear nets and saddle pads at cheap prices fly out the doors at aachen. When you are John Deere and selling $100,000 tractors or selling $30,000 treadmills you don’t expect people to sign a contract and leave a deposit. You hope in the future they think of you when it comes time to invest.

I didn’t buy anything and thought most of the booths were selling items that were too expensive for what they were, or just informative like, chronicle, big ass fans, klatte, ahha etc

[sisu27]

[QUOTE=SmplySweet1021;5157130]
I actually wanted to shop but like others said I am not going to pick up hard wood flooring, or a new arena surface at a trade show. (Then again I have no use for either) My dad was interested in the hard wood flooring, and really liked it but I doubt he will go further than that interest.

I really wanted some more tack stores (It is a horse show after all :D) Any tack places including B.O.B was out of my small price range. It was unfortunate because I was looking for a good pair of shipping boots, and a few other smaller items for my boy.[/QUOTE]

Those vendors are not expecting (nor obviously set-up) for retail sales at the show. The expectation is that it is a marketing experience.

I think that Longwood actually did get at least one big job out of the experience. They probably could have made a killing by offering small, inexpensive keepsake type items made from “historic” KY barnwood or something to that effect. Gravy.

Have any of you also considered that John probably paid a very large amount of $$ to be somewhat “exclusive” in his offerings?? BOB was the only place to purchase many/most actual tack/horse related items. Not an accident I’m sure. John is no dolt.

If you want to bitch about the tradefair…write to the organizers that made it very difficult for most to attend…do not slag off the ones that did fork out tones of $$ to be there. They were promised that the outrageous price tag of the space would be justified…then to be told “we can’t force people to buy their goods” or whatever was said??? Huge slap in the face.