Past exchanges have shown that OS show procedures vary greatly in different
parts of the country. I can speak only to South Florida. In our area:

Yes, local OS shows are struggling. It's harder every year to find
affordable venues that are suitable. The rent for both mall space and
freestanding buildings goes up and up each year. Mall space is not
conducive to charging admission, and requires MISERABLE hours from both OS
volunteers and the vendors. Freestanding buildings are difficult to even
find, much less rent, and often the size doesn't match, compared to the OS'
most recent show. So they either have to add or drop vendors. Both
problematic, from the grower side of the equation. No one wants to be
dropped because of a smaller location; on the other hand, going into a
10-vendor show that used to be 5
vendors, in a new location (with no assurance that the OS has put any of our
show fee $$ into extra advertising to compensate), is also pretty scary.

It's also becoming harder to charge admission even at free-standing
locations, at least in some cases. I've seen people walk away rather than
pay $3, or even
$1, to enter a show. I'm no longer active in any local OS management (I
found it a conflict of interest with my job here at JBO), but I hear through
the
grapevine that raffle sales are also generally down. All of which means
that vendor fees keep going up -- I WISH it had been 10 years since I'd seen
a rate hike!
[Although honesty compels me to say that since everything else in the world
seems to be going up (except the price of blooming orchids), if you haven't
had one for 10 years, you're probably overdue .... ]

The insistence of the OSs on having exhibits, in addition to the growers'
sales booths, further restricts their available options for venues, but they
obviously want them, and if they're sponsoring the show, that's their
prerogative. But when the OSs have to pay more for venue rent, that turns
into higher vendor fees (added to the cost that Pat mentioned -- it costs us
vendors $$ to put those things together). My option as a vendor is simply
to either accept or decline the invitation.

I hope the rules at the show you mentioned work, but I'm doubtful. In my
experience, OS tend to invite 2 categories of growers for whom Sunday
dumping is simply inevitable:

1. Out-of-country growers who truly can't afford to ship any unsold plants
back to their country-of-origin. Yes, these plants were really cheap, back
in those countries ... By the time you get them landed here, the cost is
usually triple or better. Sending them back simply wouldn't be feasible.
[Besides the cost, there's the double shipping stress on the plants]. So
"everything must go" before the show ends. They'll lose less money selling
them below cost than they will by throwing them in the dumpster.

2. Backyard growers. They take a booth because they have excess plants to
sell (divisions of plants they bought a long time ago, things they didn't
like as much as they thought they would, the other X#plants from a compot or
flask after they've picked their 2 or 3 favs) and need to make room in
their own growing areas. Then, they realize that these plants won't fill
their tables nor cover the booth fee, so they order a couple boxes from
Hawaii, Thailand, or wherever (and find out _after_ they've paid the nursery
that the "landed" cost is a lot more than the per plant cost they saw on
some website). They don't want to take anything home, because after all,
their original goal was to make room, not get more filled up. [And they
need to pay the current VISA bills for what they bought, along with the
shipping, but have no venue to sell the plants the following week.]

When those in charge are serious about such rules (in my experience, seldom
at OS shows), these growers will at least try to wholesale their excess to
the professionals in attendance as vendors. But what can't be disposed of
that way will be dumped -- to the public -- at ridiculously low prices. So
the customers don't need to leave the show and go to box stores; they can
just walk to the next booth. Some of these customers realize they're
getting "distress sale" prices; others think that's what the prices should
have been all along and that the other vendors charging realistic prices are
a "bunch of ripoffs."

Best of luck to all, Kenni

One thing that does worry me is the local society sponsored orchid shows.
These shows count on orchid sales to pay the bills and the current show
trends have not been very good. At most shows it seems that attendance is
down and a more common attitude of the public seems to be "A great
variety, but not
many interesting ones........And of course you can not beat the price at
the
box store!" Instead of coming home from the show with two plants, they
get fired up at the show and then head off to the box store to buy three
plants for the same money.

I do not think that there is much the vendors can do about price. I tend
to sell plants at shows for about $30. Of that $30, about $6 from every
plant sold goes directly to the society as a table fee or commission. In
addition, I figure another $2 from every plant sold goes to pay for the
costs associated with putting in an exhibit. If we remove the fees that I
must pay to underwrite the cost of a show, I am receiving about $22 per
plants sold. Not very different from what some box stores receive.

Some societies are already feeling the pinch. Over the past few months
two of my commission shows have announced rate hikes. It is the first
time I have seen rate hikes in ten years. In the first one, all of the
vendors refused to do the show. I attended the society meeting of the
second. There was a general feeling at the meeting that vendors could just
raise their prices to cover the increase in fees. Thankfully my wife was
there (I am too gruff to be allowed to speak in public) and she was able
to explain we deal in a commodity that has it price set by the market
(i.e. box stores.) If we raise our prices too high not only will we lose
sales but the general public will think of the show as a rip-off and never
come back. I did this show and most of the commission increase came
directly out of my back pocket. I do not know if the other vendors were
able to past on the costs or if they ate them as well.

I just got a mailing from New York and they are introducing new rules
which they hope will help vendors. One rule prohibits bottom feeding
pricing and another prohibits Sunday afternoon dumping. The mailing is
just about as adamant as it can be without crossing the price fixing line.
I have always though trying to control a commodity's price was never easy
and in most cases not a good idea. At least the show's board recognized
problems and acted in a mater they felt was best for the show and its
vendors. We will see.

All you guys out there involved in putting on these shows need to be
watching closely to make sure your show remands viable for the number and
type of vendors it involves or the society desires. Creative solutions
are going to be required and show boards are facing hard decisions.


Pat