Artists had no clue that the survey they received from Nancy Vince and Wholesalecrafts.com in January would lead to the rug being pulled out from under them. In what appears to be a continuing arms race between the mainstay and the upstart, Wholesalecrafts.com recently announced the addition of ACRE Philadelphia next February. What they didn't announce at the close of their 4th show in Orlando in January is that the deal included closing the Orlando show, despite having a number of artists sign up and pay fees for 2015.
It is understood that there are no guarantees in this world, but this abrupt course change tells me that Wholesalecrafts cannot be counted on to help build a solid relationship between artists and buyers.
Comments
Yes, my feeling is that the presence of the Orlando Gift Show nether hurt nor helped ACRE Orlando overall. I was not happy with the way both shows were laid out in 2014. In all previous years, both shows were laid out symmetrically in the hall, buyers coming down the escalators were presented with the the gift show on the left and ACRE on the right. In 2014, the gift show was right there, and buyers had to walk a bit further to get to the ACRE show. It was evident which show took priority.
The number of buyers did seem down, but our sales, and the sales of the booths surrounding us, were up from previous years. We had sales from all areas of the country, but probably more sales from the Florida area.
There are great reasons for doing a gift show, but most of the regional shows have difficulty drawing high quality retailers that can purchase items like art glass, fine jewelry etc. The organization of some of the exhibit areas is another problem. When you are at a gift show as much as half of the attendees are reps, product design scouts (thieves) or manufacturers. Know before you go!
I firmly believe the venue was extremely disappointing; having the Orlando gift cash and carry show in the same convention parlor with cheap products from China deferred potential buyers. I can not afford to lay out thousands of dollars with an event styled with two shows together. Never again. It is not my arena. My product takes much too much labor to sell at half price.
Karen, have you done a show in the northeast before? We did BMAC in Philly for two years, and it did not work out well for us. I forget the exact years, maybe 2008? The show was down for those years but has reportedly since come back. How the latest move will affect the show is anybody's guess.
> Wholesalecrafts is listening to their artists' feedback
I did not see the survey, but was there any mention of closing the Orlando show? If so, then I stand corrected. I still maintain that the rug was pulled out from under us. The right thing to do was to run the ACRE Orlando in 2015, then cancel if they chose to, but KEEP THEIR COMMITMENT.
> seems like no harm no foul to me
BS. We plan one year in advance, we already made arrangements for travel and housing.
ACRE Orlando for us and several of our neighbors was building each year. It is quite likely that we will be done with wholesale for a while.
There is so much gossip. If you want the truth get it all in writing... from any show promoter. We are always available by phone at the office or by cell. Mine is 410.262.2872.
The Buyers Market moved due to unavailability of space to accommodate the current number of exhibitors and lack of consistency in dates in the future. You can find out more here - http://americanmadeshow.com/2015-faq/ . Disclosure: I am a working artist who works for Buyers Market / American Made Show as well.
Thanks Karen for the info. Do you or anyone else know why the Buyer's Market left for Washington DC?
Vicky, the Buyer's Market has left Philly and will now be in Washington DC in mid-January. The ACRE show by Wholesalecrafts will be filling the void in Philly and will be in mid-February.
The Philadelphia Buyers Market (a long established event) is also in February. Unless that has changed there will be two wholesale shows in Philadelphia in February.
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