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I spent a wonderful summer's day manning the VAICS booth this year. It was my first time at the expo so I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had a great spot at the entrance to the main auditorium tent. The Expo had a special project to take a census of the old barns in the state and this took place in the back of the tent we were in so I think we got as much traffic as there was to get.
I'd estimate that I greeted about 100 people of all ages. All were supportive of our mission and our businesses. Many told stories of the store they grew up with, the store they shop at now or the store that left a hole in their village. It probably comes as no surprise but they invariably referred to these places of business as "my store" or less frequently, but no less enthusiastically, "our store". They sang the praises of Coburn's, Dan & Whit's, Lloyd's, Cambridge Village Store(?) and the Newbury Village Store, among others. There's a group of people in Craftsbury that may be contacting us for advice as they try to resurrect their store as a community effort. That's how much they miss "their" store!
We had some newsletters from 2007 and 2008, copies of the tour map and membership packets available at the table. This year we had the proof edition of the book about the History of Vermont Country Stores along with order forms. I'm sure next year we'll have the actual book available. We also had a hand out emphasizing Buy Local. Buy Fresh, Buy the Best which is a great message for us, especially in this time of rising gas prices. We finished our presentation with a looping video of some of the coverage we've had on national TV and Jayne Nold-Laurendeaus' VGA 2002 Retailer of the Year award.
I think we need to maximize the impact of our presence at the Expo next year. Be great if we could get some more volunteers but even having one person man the booth each day will be enough.. The most requested item that we didn't have available to take home was a list of member stores. I referred these inquiries to the website but I think we need to have one available as a hand out next year. We've been kicking around a passport program for a few years now without much success. It seems to me that if we could just give out the list of store and encourage them to complete the "Vermont 60" much like the "VT 250 Club" where participants visit every town in the state we'll have accomplished our objective without much upfront expense. Another idea might be to have some water and/or soda with a universal VAICS label available as a give away or for sale as a fund- raiser. A variation on that would be to have a variety of the product donated by participating stores so that their name gets out to those in attendance. I'm also going to look into the cost of creating a balloon with the VAICS logo to give to the kids that come by.
One final thought. The only negative I heard repeatedly was that there is the perception and sometimes the reality that we're more expensive than the big guys. We need to find a way to overcome that. We need to hammer home the message that we're probably closer than the big guy, that we have what they need, give great service and atmosphere, assure quality and freshness and are an important part of the fabric of the community. Find a way to emphasize the value and not the cost.
Thanks go out to Jim Harrison for getting everything to the Expo booth and Dennis Bathory-Kitsz for setting up and tearing down the booth. Gary Hatch of the Newbury Village Store staffed the booth on Sunday.
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