Dear Editor:

Enjoyed your editorial on the value of trade shows as a viable platform for selling goods (November 1998). One paragraph in particular caught my attention, as it is basically the same philosophy that I have espoused for years with regards to retail RV shows. You state that "In the final analysis we have to ask the question: do these sales increase the overall market or simply realign sales that might have been made anyway had the event not happened". I contend that not one extra sale is ever made as a result of an RV show. These sales would have taken place, just in a different time and place.

As a former Florida dealer, and a participant in the Tampa Super Show for many years, I can tell you that this show had an effect on our sales for up to two months prior to its happening. How many of us have had customers tell us that they weren't buying until they went to the show. It has gotten so bad with shows in Florida that customers think that is the only place they should buy. Still we participate. We have no choice, it's a matter of self defense.

The end result of this is that we spend an exorbitant amount of money with the show promoters to display our product to the same public that is already coming to our sales lot. In return we get the opportunity to offer this product to the buying public at a discount, which enables us to further reduce our profits. What's wrong with this picture? As the General Manager of a North Carolina dealership I will watch this coming year as all of January's business is put off until the last three days of the month, so that we can participate in an RV Show. In my opinion we forfeit the whole month only to rush and do business on the last week of the month.

To further complicate things, many of the sales are made by dealers from outside the immediate area. The local dealer gets the short end of that deal as well. He did not participate in the profit, but will surely participate in the warranty headaches. More than likely the dealer will not be real happy about doing the work, and the result will be a disgruntled customer. We give customers conflicting messages. We ask them to buy at a show and then punish them for doing so.

I realize that I'm just whistling in the dark, and things will probably never change. But here's a thought. With the advent of the internet and its continuing popularity, maybe in the near future we will be able to just pay to show our inventory at a show, and after viewing the models customers will be able to purchase them over the internet at the cheapest price somewhere else. Or how about this scenario. We quit going to shows and make them come to our business to see the product, where we can attempt to control the sale and keep the customers local where they belong.

Richard J. Charron
General Manager
Independence RV Sales and
Service of Charlotte, Inc.
Charlotte, North Carolina