As I indicated in last month's article, I have been working with a number of wholesalers and their showrooms in the past several months. Each of these wholesalers has recognized the tremendous potential that showrooms offer. All of them are spending a lot of money redoing, updating and expanding their showrooms. All have multiple showrooms and have made a commitment to diversify the products they're showing and selling. All of the showrooms are located in the wholesale facility.
Over time, all companies collect more customers, products and vendors than they need.A careful sorting of each of these three groups will show you where you are making money, breaking even and even losing money.
There's no shortage of trade shows featuring PHCP products, but you won't find another one aimed specifically at the trade channel of distribution. You won't find many interior designers, retailers, consumers and other peripheral customers occupying the attention of ISH NA exhibitors. Mostly they'll be holding court with contractors, wholesalers, specifiers and other industry players.
I had a call from a marketing lady last October (I often get such calls) who wanted to pick my brain as to what would happen when our industry had to provide residential air-conditioning units with a minimum of 13-SEER efficiency. She didn't tell me who she represented or why she was asking. I thought you might be interested in my reply.
The entire industry has undergone dramatic changes since I first began my career with SUPPLY HOUSE TIMES 29 years ago. Consolidation is the biggest factor, although not the only one.
The “End Game” is actually a chess terminology used in the context of the end game strategy to win the game. It focuses on centralization of the king, the role of the pawns, the principle of weakness and the bishop's impact.
Because many of my articles in SUPPLY HOUSE TIMES can be found by Internet search engines, scarcely a week goes by when I don't receive a question from a consumer asking an HVACR question that he or she has taken the time to research on the Web.
Making the critical decision about replacing a computer system has always been difficult because it involves subjective, intangible factors as well as dollars. And now it can be more confusing because the decision should consider a new kind of “system” - Application Service (AS).
In the early 1990s, Rudy Giuliani, then the newly elected Mayor of New York City, set out to prove that New York City - a city which for years had been assumed to be too big, too unruly, too diverse, too broke to be managed - was in fact, manageable.