Buyers eye SHOPA as Thalheim B-T-S attendance thins

Drug Store News, Dec 9, 1991

Buyers eye SHOPA as Thalheim B-T-S attendance thins

CHICAGO - Many buyers who were faced with tight budgets and two stationery-home office shows in late-'91 skipped Thalheim's Back-to-School Show here in favor of the upstart SHOPA (School and Home Office Products Association) show in New Orleans.

SHOPA was created last year as a splinter group determined to hold its show in December, a more advantageous buying time for the industry. Thalheim, in a belated consideration of its traditional February show in New York, moved up its show to Nov. 12-14 in Chicago.

Chris Michel, of New Orleans-based K&B, was at the Thalheim show. He said: "I planned to attend both shows this year to give them a fair shot so that I would decide which to attend in 1992. I did have success with vendors at the Chicago show, but it's clear that SHOPA will be the show that's best for me to attend next year."

Patrick Faye, Walgreens' buyer, also attended the Chicago show and will attend this month's SHOPA as well. He's not sure about his '92 plans yet, but noted that "the lack of support by major manufacturers seemed to take the excitement and enthusiasm out of the show."

Mead, Binney & Smith, Borden and Stuart Hall were a few of the big guns missing from the show floor in Chicago. The manufacturers who decided to stick with the Thalheim show were disappointed that buyers were scarce. Some sent members of their sales force home early; a few even packed up their booths before the show's end.

Mark Welfley, marketing communications manager, Pentel of America, said, "We met with maybe 10 qualified buyers, most of them from the Chicago area."

Henry Dicker, show manager, Thalheim Expositions, said that he, too, was disappointed with the show's attendance. "We were as disappointed as the exhibitors. We've had a commitment to this industry for 10 years and we made every effort to promote this show," he said. "People were looking for a February trade show where the aisles were packed, and they didn't get that."

No cross section

Dicker says cross traffic has come in past years from the February Toy Fair in New York. "The 600 major buyers we usually had in New York in February were camouflaged by the other 11,000 buyers who were in town for the toy show," he said. "At this show we had a cross section of buyers, but certainly not what we had anticipated."

Nor was it what manufacturers expected. "We were extremely disappointed with the show and the representation of buyers at the show," said Mike Carey, director of marketing, Labelon Corp.

Gregg Gittens, vp-sales at Labelon, said he was unable to get a list of buyers expected to attend the show from Thalheim. "We weren't able to get a list before the show, and at the show we got a long list of buyers who never attended," he said.

Dicker said Thalheim is reviewing its plans for next year's show, which will return to New York Nov. 13-15. "We have to look at what we will do, but we're around for the long haul," Dicker said.

However, said John Linster, general manager, Avery Dennison: "We don't plan to attend next year. This was the last straw."