I sent an email to The Woodworking Shows folks complaining about 2 main issues I saw at the recent Timonium show, and have seen over the last several years: the lack of variety and vendors running out of product fairly quickly and issuing no rainchecks.
The response I received, in part, was "...our goal a the show promoters IS to have our vendors run out of stock! It means that we've done our job and produced a successful show." Though, since this show, supposedly the vendors are reconsidering their "stocking counts". Sent by "ANN".
One problem I detailed was that by Saturday mid-morning, Peachtree was out of a number of items (e.g. sandpaper, though supposedly a supplier problem, and 32oz Titebond III) for which they'd issued coupons. I thought less than half way thru the show was a bit early to be out of stock.
This sort of thing seems to happen fairly consistently, and while many of the participants do offer rainchecks (not Peachtree), it's still annoying not to be able to take something home after going to some trouble and some expense to attend the show.
Additionally, I noted that DeWalt is very well represented, but few other brands make an appearance. and, it didn't seem like stuff that was a bit out of the very ordinary (Drill Doctor, Akeda jig, etc.) ever made an appearance.
Whereas in years past I could get a deal on good (Sorby) chisels (for example) that were being replaced by a new design, now they had bins of Chinese junk.
These other issues weren't addressed in the email response.
Ann/ANN has expressed her support of the vendors and her disdain for the customers, IMNSHO. Her definition of success is sorta biased (though I see where she's coming from, but the details matter in this case).
Opinions?
Thanx Renata