Wow, I think every living soul on the earth was going into, or out of, NYC this Thanksgiving weekend. I grew up in the NY metro area (LI) and am more than familiar with traffic but I have never seen anything like this. 30 hours round trip- a new record!! Three guesses as to why I moved??
Show in White Plains was a bit under our usual gross but overall not bad considering. Have to admit, you get a bit worried when this is your sole source of income and you see all of the gloom and doom on the tv lately. It would seem the reptile economy is still pretty strong though. Often small niches like this one (reptiles) do fairly well when the bigger picture is not so great. While the show was a bit off from the others there it was actually pretty good when you consider the really nasty weather on Sunday morning and the fact that it is the largest shopping weekend of the year. Last years Thanksgiving show was far from a record breaker either. Bruce puts on a great show but I do wonder if maybe there would be a better weekend for this one. Most likely he is locked in by the venue.
I am getting to be pretty disappointed in the security staff for the show there. While not too bad thefts seem to be on the rise and the “crack” squad of security personell there seemed to be more worried about where people park and that everyone leaves instantly when they say get out at the end. While these two things help to add to an otherwise orderly and well thought out show I am about tired of being bitched at and seeing attendees randomly accosted and accused for no viable reason other than they thought the looked suspicious. How about paying attention and shutting your mouth some?? Observation of the suspicious rather than confrontation and threats?? Why are you standing at the Staff table talking?? Or don’t you care vendors are being ripped off?? If you are not happy with the security at the show I would encourage you to talk to Bruce or any of the other show staff about it. Enough is enough.
Looking ahead though, Bruce has set up the January show for later in January than usual (25th) and knocked it back to a one day affair. I am very happy to see this. The two day show got us the same return and cost us twice as much to do. Had a lot of unhappy people last year on Sunday who are used to the one day Sunday show as well. They came there to find most all the good stuff was gone.
Frank (Coldblooded Novelties) will be in Hamburg this weekend- If you need any thermostats, tempguns or some nice animals check him out. His # is 336 880 5798 if you need to find him at the show.
Got some very nice San Gabriel rosy boas from Leah Aldridge (NV) today. Very nice, fat babies that look like they have been well cared for. If you are in the market for some rosys check her out! She has some ads up on kingsnake.com right now……