So we keep hearing it's been miserably slow at the recent trade shows. There is lots of interest and quoting going on but not much actual business being done. I heard the other day that sales at most of the top 20 suppliers are down over 20% from this year to last, how are distributors handling the slow times and do you think it will rebound in 2009? I hope others participate in the product blogs which may be a great resource for suppliers as new products are introduced.
I was at a trade show last week. It was probably half of what it was last year and a shadow of the 2007 show. Don't let them fool you almost everyone is down double digits this year.
Trade Show last week in this area was pretty packed but there wasn't much buying going on. Even worse for all of us nobody was giving away anything and a lot of familiar faces were long gone. Been some major shakeups in the Big 10 lately.
A lot of suppliers were pretty close to becoming insolvent during the summer. Many more will likely fail completely this winter.