Chrysler at Carlisle; Carlisle, PA.; July 10th-13th

[69bfan]

I personally don't mind the way it is. I've never even thought that it could be an issue for some people. Suppose if you go enough years in a row you get to know where everyone is. Some vendors have been in the same spots for decades. There's a "Manufacturer's Midway" but those spots are more of a trade show type set up. Mancini's is usually at the end of that row.

That said, it likely isn't feasible to confine specific vendors into one area. The show is too big and established to have to maneuver everyone around every year. It would also be counterproductive to sales for the individual vendors if everyone around them has the same or similar stuff. Would you spend X amount at one then go into the next one and do the same?

I've never been to the Nats so I can't comment on it but I've been to Spring Fling a few times. I don't think it's worth comparing that swap meet layout to Carlisle precisely because the scale is so different. The space allotted to the swap meet at Woodley Park probably doesn't even amount to the area of one row at Carlisle.

We have been doing the Carlisle show since 1992 and Columbus since 1987. We have basically been in the same spots all of these years. We have grown significantly over the years and the foot print that we take up is much larger than the four spaces we were using at the shows when we first started.

After all of the years, our customer base knows where we are located. This year for Carlisle, we actually had a second location up on rows B and C to gain some of the sales for those people that are entering into the swap meet from Gate 3, which might not find us until later in the day or weekend.

The manufactures midway is basically non-existent at the Columbus Nats. For Carlisle, the midway is more geared to product display or feature cars.

From all of the years that we have been vending, our product focus has been new reproduction parts. At one time, Columbus Nats tried to make the new product vendors be up on the midway. That failed miserably as those vendors wanted to be out in the swap meet area where people were actually looking to buy parts.

After Covid, many of the vendors realized that the shows are very expensive to do and they require a tremendous amount of time to prepare for and to be away from the office. I would say in just the last six years, the number of your larger dedicated vendors that are attending the shows is less than 25% of what it was pre Covid.

Unfortunately, we are all getting older and do not have the energy that we did back twenty plus years ago. I know that we are talking about ways to downsize and cut back on cost. All of the vendors, whether it is new or old parts, are facing the same issues.

I do not foresee a show ever trying to lump the vendors all into different locations based on what you are selling. When the Holley Moparty first started, I spent hours talking with the marketing company on the concept of what a swap meet was about. They had never put on events in which a true swap meet was part of the event. For them, the ideal of vendors was your large vendors like Holley, Goodyear, Chrevolet, etc bringing in semi trailers of display items and handing out product fliers.

Thankfully, Carlisle understands the concept of the swap meet area and they take care of us vendors. Some of these shows can be a real pain in getting things in place, but I have to say that Carlisle reaches out to us prior and after the show as to what they can do to make things better for everyone. That is a HUGE positive for everyone!!