The recent Off Price Specialist Show (August 23-26, Sands Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas) lived up to its billing as the marketplace for the best deals in the apparel retail industry.  The weak retail market and the anticipation of this show curbed buyers’ normal pattern of earlier purchasing.  The 489 vendors displaying were well-stocked to meet the needs of this motivated buyer attendance, which increased almost 20% from last year’s show.

“The stars lined up perfectly.  Our exhibitors were ready and the order-writing was fantastic from the start,” said Julie Ichiba, Executive Show Director.  “Exhibitors in just about every category had a very successful show.”

“Customers know how important the first day (of Off Price) is.  Even the lower-volume customers made appointments on the first day so they wouldn’t lose out,” reported Kay McQuade, owner of White Mountain Dry Goods Inc. from Dover, New Hampshire.

The second day of the show – Sunday, August 24^th – was supposed to end at 6:00 PM.  At around 7:15 PM, show management and security were finally able to politely kick out motivated buyers hungry for a wide range of quality products at the best price points.

“It was non-stop, and I got a big order from a major retailer at 4:00 pm on the second day,” said Andy Shamsi of Cosmo Trading.

“Christmas comes only twice a year, and we’re in the midst of it,” said Ira Eisenberg, President of Wise Buys, Inc.  “We had an awesome show!”

The Atlanta-based mens’ apparel jobber greeted “a lot of new buyers” at their booth who came to explore the Off Price Show for “traffic builders” to “create more buzz in their stores.”  Several of the show’s exhibitors had the same positive experience with both new and regular customers.

“People were here to buy,” said Harry Levinson of Off-Price Trading out of Closter, New Jersey.  “We did a lot of good business with existing customers, and opened up quite a few new accounts, including a new chain and exporters from outside the country.”

LA-based Puzzles Enterprises reported new business activity from a lot of independent retailers who found OffPriceShow.com and OffPriceShowrooms.com through the search engines.  This was complemented with a lot of repeat and regular business and solid international traffic.

Vendors in the non-apparel categories of Off Price also had a successful show as well.  Mannequin supplier Display Importer.com experienced more traffic and lots of new business in only their third show.  Jeff Ackerman of Capico Accessories met a lot of buyers looking for handbags, wallets and accessories.  “It’s been a very good accessories show.”  And gift/lifestyle/bed & bath vendor Burwell Industries developed many large accounts with mid to high range retailers, including a European company who picked up 45,000 units each of Burwell’s entire product line.

Many exhibitors were “pleasantly surprised” by the volume of buyers and buying activity.  One sales representative from New York-based Prime Garments “wrote big orders with small chains that we didn’t know existed.  It was an excellent show for us!”

Buyers also expressed their satisfaction with this Show.  A buyer from one of the larger discount retailers said “They (the Off Price team) do a great job with the show.  We found that we needed more than our usual two days to shop.”  Chad Ellington, owner of Cartel Clothing in Wellington, Florida found tremendous deals on sunglasses and urban wear for his store.