Stats and More from Buyer Days 2006

(Excerpt taken from 4.14.06 email to Buyer Day exhibitors. ) I hope all of you made it home and/or to the next show without any mishaps. Buyer and Vendor list attached.

Snow, Easter vacations and availability at the City Center - end of March would be best but already locked into April 4/5 in 2007.

Yes, maybe you folks are right - I'll go back to calling it the Adirondack North Country Buyer Days next year - the product mix and type at the show appeals to a broad range of shop types including contemporary.

We had 133 shops (232 owners and employees in all) compared to 151 shops (250 people in total) in 2005 and 154 in 2004. We did see an increase in attendance from Vermont shops - from 4 in 2005 to 9 this year - that was nice.

The shops, attached in an excel file, are listed in alphabetical order by business name and coded so you know if they came Thursday, Friday, both days, were walkins or preregistered and/or no shows.

So buyer attendance was down - by 18 shops - % wise that is significant but when you look at the average per exhibitor in orders and cash and carry sales from last year to this year, it's only down by $290. You got to love our shopowners! Their belief in our tourism based economy may be what drives it all.

Survey results (23 out of 67 answered - thank you):

An average of $1142 in new orders per exhibitor.
An average of $1420 in reorders per exhibitor.
Totalling an average in orders per exhibitor of $2562 compared to last year's average of $2855.

An average of $903 in cash and carry compared to last year's average of $516.
9 out the 17 who answered had cash and carry sales of more than $1000 so there are shopowners/vendors seriously saving on shipping.

So average of $3465 is actually more than last year's average of $3321. Go figure!!!

There were at least two shops at the show who were opening up for the first time this season; The Naked Moose in Old Forge and North Country Artisans in Natural Bridge. We wish you the best in your business.