Where have all the vendors gone?
Attended the Philadelphia RV show yesterday....lots of dealers and RVs...(some interesting) but outside of campgrounds with their brochures, etc., the only vendors I took notice of were Beef Jerkey, b...
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I don't know specifically about accessories, but I assume that the internet has destroyed that market like Walmart has destroyed the Mom-n-Pop stores. I don't shop at Walmart, but that is a tirade for another forum.
January is when they have the RV shows in our area. We were looking a Class A and drove by a dealership that has considerable freeway frontage. They had banners out proclaiming an "RV Show" but it was at the dealerhship and not the convention center that was the official show.
We saw the one we wanted and chatted up the salesman. He was retired from the dealership and only came back during the "show" time to help with the influx of customers. I asked why they were not at THE show and he told me that they charged a tremendous amount of $$$ for floorspace and they could only get 10 units in the show. He said their better play was to piggyback on the official show and put banners up on the routes to the show and try and convince people to come to the dealership where they had their entire inventory on display and didn't pay the high rates. We didn't buy from them as we could not agree on price.
We went to the dealer we have used for the last 3 rigs we bought and worked out a deal. As we were talking with the finance man, whom we know from buying 3 previous units, he advised the fees are high for the show and this was going to be the last time they went if things were as they have been in previous years. He said it was the best year they had on record. His brother is a salesperson and his brother personally sold 10 Georgetowns at the show, not counting sales from all the other staff.
So maybe the dealers can absorb the high floor space in the units markup and throw some of their parts on display as well but if parts/accessories is your only business probably a tough nut to crack.
January is when they have the RV shows in our area. We were looking a Class A and drove by a dealership that has considerable freeway frontage. They had banners out proclaiming an "RV Show" but it was at the dealerhship and not the convention center that was the official show.
We saw the one we wanted and chatted up the salesman. He was retired from the dealership and only came back during the "show" time to help with the influx of customers. I asked why they were not at THE show and he told me that they charged a tremendous amount of $$$ for floorspace and they could only get 10 units in the show. He said their better play was to piggyback on the official show and put banners up on the routes to the show and try and convince people to come to the dealership where they had their entire inventory on display and didn't pay the high rates. We didn't buy from them as we could not agree on price.
We went to the dealer we have used for the last 3 rigs we bought and worked out a deal. As we were talking with the finance man, whom we know from buying 3 previous units, he advised the fees are high for the show and this was going to be the last time they went if things were as they have been in previous years. He said it was the best year they had on record. His brother is a salesperson and his brother personally sold 10 Georgetowns at the show, not counting sales from all the other staff.
So maybe the dealers can absorb the high floor space in the units markup and throw some of their parts on display as well but if parts/accessories is your only business probably a tough nut to crack.
