[SGVLUG] The price of (near) success?

[Tom Emerson]

On Monday 03 October 2005 22:01, serross at ix.netcom.com wrote:
> My understand is that the Show is getting smaller, from two buildings down
> to one. 

the show has a vicious circle history to it: it started as one day, one 
building and had absolutely amazing prices at the time.  it became immensely 
popular.  At that time, however, retails stores such as compusa and fry's 
started to offer "swapmeet prices" without the hassle of the crowd and 
overhead of paying to enter and for parking.  This eventually forced the 
swapmeet organizers to offer an "annual pass" [of course, the fact I was 
asking them to offer such a pass (and I'm sure I wasn't alone in this 
request) nearly every month probably had a little to do with the 
decision :) ]

With an annual pass, a large part of the "overhead" for the consumer went away 
(parking had just gone up to $5 around then, up from $3, while the entry fee 
was still $7 or $8)  While an annual pass guaranteed a quick shot to the 
income, they were betting that a sufficient number of customers would end up 
attending fewer than 3 shows per year (the break-even point for a $25 pass).  
They might have gotten that, but the other consequence was that now the 
number of "casual" attendees (people showing up to browse rather than buy, 
just because they can get in "free") went up dramatically -- this helped 
force the two-day/two-building situation at Pomona.

With the advent of a second building, the organizers got a different "boost" 
to their income: many vendors would end up buying -4- booths instead of one.  
This allowed them to set up at both ends of both buildings, then raise the 
prices at one of their booths to make the other booths "look good".  
Furthermore, with people like Mike who had "things to do on saturdays", the 
sunday sales became just as popular (and doubled the organizer's income from 
the vendors)  Now, how many retail establishments can afford to stay open for 
business when their fixed costs rise 800% in less than 5 years?

So, two-days/two-buildings isn't completely sustainable for the Pomona site, 
especially since the prices the vendors are offering isn't much better than 
retail (because they have higher overhead [from running multiple booths 
{which really reduces the number of vendors <which means as a consumer you 
really only need to go to one half of one building> } ] )  Unfortunately, 
they have set a precedent, so it's very hard for them to go back to "one 
day/one building".

> This would be one reason, the other is probably ... there biggest money
> maker ... besides the September Fair season, get banned. 

Hmmm... that wouldn't have happened to be the gun show, now would it?

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