We love to interact with our readers and feedback is always welcome and appreciated! One of our readers, Benjamin Iobst, wrote us a letter in response to the Take Five article we ran in our May/June 2010 issue. Read the original article here then scroll down to see Benjamin's letter. Do you have an opinion on the subject? Please send your letter to our Editor at kathy@newageretailer.com.

Benjamin Iobst's letter:
 

In an article in the May/June New Age Retailer, the author gave five reasons to attend a trade show.  We were told we could “go home with a suitcase full of books and CDs signed by the author or musician” which could then be made up into gift baskets and raffled off to attract and treat customers.

I am both a shop owner and a recording artist.  I know intimately how much work is involved in keeping a shop thriving.  But here I would like to speak from the artist’s point of view.

First of all, those demos did not fall from the sky into the trade show booths.  In the case of my CD, I invested energy and spirit to produce the work; paid for the pressing; prepared the demos (time-consuming task of unwrapping and marking as demos); packed them and paid for shipping to the distributor.

The distributor paid for the trade show booth and for staff travel and lodging and carting all those demos.  The writers and musicians also pay the distributor a fee to hand out the demos.  Some distributors require us to provide a discount on merchandise ordered at the show.  Artists autographing their work at the show have paid a fee for that privilege, as well as their travel and lodging costs.

My point is, if you gather up these books and CDs and put them in a gift basket, or – worse yet – sell them, you may make one person happy but are missing out on their real value.  That is, of course, to help you sell more of them in your store and make lots of people happy, as well as provide income to you, the artists and the distributors.

This life of ours is a river and store owners, artists and distributors swim in the same current.  We must support each other equally to stay afloat and thrive, because separately we will not.

If you receive unsolicited demos in the mail, I consider them yours to do with as you please.  However, if you have demos from trade shows or that you requested from the distributor that you don’t care for or are no longer carrying, consider returning them to the distributor or passing them on to another retailer.  A couple of dollars for media mail postage to return a box full is a small investment in the big picture.

Finally, my advertising dollars help pay for this free magazine that helps your shop find products and provides you with informative articles and scintillating editorials.

Consider the river,

Benjamin Iobst

[Iobst is the artist of Seven Metals CD, www.SevenMetals.com, and owns Salamander in Saluda, N.C., with his wife.]