Posted on 01/22/2013 4:21:47 PM PST by Second Amendment First
The Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show is billed as the largest show of its kind in North America. But after the event made a decision to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, it may now lose that title.
"We felt that getting involved last year was a good business decision. It has a lot of coverage, a lot of exposure," said Ben Bode of Trop Gun Shop in Elizabethtown.
Trop was one of the first vendors to boycott the show, and their customers responded. Trop's Facebook page exploded with 'likes', they received letter, faxes and praise from clients.
But that's not the case for the nine-day-long show, which is scheduled to begin on February 2.
Since the announcement of the ban, this Facebook page calling for a boycott already has nearly 10,000 likes. This is the Facebook list of vendors that have pulled out; more than 175 along with 20 celebrity speakers.
"While it was certainly a big decision, we could not rectify participating in something like that with an organization that is not supporting our second amendment rights." Bode said.
We did ask Bode at Trop Gun Shop if the store would consider going back to the Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show if the organizers dropped the ban. And he said no, the damage has been done.
The show has about 1200 vendors, so about 15% are gone.
Love it!
15% of the vendors pulling out? That’s a huge percentage.
I wonder if they had to pay a fee and will now lose their money.
We Conservatives don’t boycott often, but when we do, it is with TEETH!
(reposted from the Ruger thread noting their pullout)
This represents a big $$$ commitment on their part, and on the part of all that have pulled out. By this time, as close to the show as we are, they are eating alot of money to pull out, without having the income from the show to offset the up-front costs.
It is very unlikely they will get the money back for their booth space, they have already spent money prepping the booth and exhibit materials, booking flights and hotels rooms etc., which may or may not be refundable depending on specific conditions, and their internal people have spent time preparing exhibits, producing print materials, and conducting various marketing efforts related to the show, some of which may be reusable, some not.
And as was mentioned, some vendors, maybe not specifically Ruger, but certainly the more local Mom and Pops, stand to lose significant revenues for the year by backing out of the show.
Check the list and support who you can in your area that pulled out, as well as the bigger companies like Ruger, et al that stood up to the exhibit company/promoters PC supplicating decision.
It sure is ... look at the crowd that showed up to support Chic-fil-a
... now if we could just have a candidate to get behind with such fervor
Vendors of fishing gear, clothes, camping gear and travel trailers always outnumbered gun vendors so this show is gonna be a total snoregasm.
HA HA.
It would be interesting to know what the breakeven point is for Reed; i.e. how much revenue they need before they make a profit.
Protesting an exhibition that one can recover from is a far cry from protesting an election that is a bullet in your head dead.
Yes, and a small exhibitor is losing $7,000 he had to pay.
“It would be interesting to know what the breakeven point is for Reed; i.e. how much revenue they need before they make a profit.”
I thought I had read somewhere that there would be no refunds for those who pull out of the show.
Yes, and a small exhibitor is losing $7,000 he had to pay.
Hey! There is always beef jerky, knives and that fake Indian jewelry LOL
It would be more interesting to know the ROI expected by the remaining exhibitors individually as a result of attending this event. Many have a tight tradeshow budget and will not return to a show that failed to pay out in orders written.
So, if one were to want to make it a very effective boycott, the objective would be to dissuade *buyers* from attending the show, not exhibitors, although the loss of major players from the floor of the exhibition halls will have an effect as far as putting a damper on the event.
yes they lost their reservation deposit
Typical for shows like this, your deposit was in almost a year ago.
Typically, if you pull out this close to the opening, it will be forfeit. But I think these vendors are willing to bank that if they don’t make a stand now, other show organizers will pull the same crpola. (Reason being organizers think they have to cow tow to the local yocals for their show permits.)
Think of it as an “investment.” Vendors are telling organizers “you can’t make a decision like this without risk.”
In Cabella’s case, I’m just guessing here because of course I don’t know, but I think its: “don’t assume you got us by the short hairs just because of a deposit.”
The friction between vendors and organizers can run deep, that I do know for sure.
I’m not usually litigious minded, but in this case it is warranted. To change the rules like this a week or two prior is bad form. Should take a good hard look at the fine print of the vendor agreements...
Seems to me that everybody should have just ignored the politics as pure rhetoric and continued on as usual, but that’s just me.
The revenue from selling exhibit space is only one revenue stream; Reed also makes money from selling tickets to the attendees of the show. My guess is that word is spreading through the outdoors community and that attendance will be proportionally affected by the withdrawal of key exhibitors.
it is such a MASSIVE show.
they could survive with only a 15% loss.
however the attendees have to stay away.
If nobody shows up then they are toast for breach since THEIR actions created the negative publicity.
How many RV dealers? how many boat dealers?
I can’t believe Polaris is still there, they sell Victory motorcycles.
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