Damn Yankees

On the way to the Boston Golf show Saturday morning, the song "Higher" by the late '80's early '90s rock super group "Damn Yankees" came on the radio. The band was formed in 1989, consisting of Tommy Shaw of Styx, Jack Blades of Night Ranger, Ted Nugent of Amboy Dukes and his own solo career, and Michael Cartellone. Presumably inspired by the musical of the same name, Nugent once also explained that he coined the name because whenever someone asked him how he and Tommy Shaw would sound playing together, he would always reply by saying they would sound like “a bunch of damn Yankees.”

I thought the song was well timed because that was the same day that my super group was coming to help. Andy M, Wendy W, and Gina. What a collection of salespeople and golfers in my booth. I have included a pic of Damn Yankees. I also have a pic of my group can you guess which is which?

I would like to thank them, my staff, my wife and father in law for making a brutal weekend tolerable.

New Jersey was Great!

I would like to thank North Coast Golf Shows and the good people of NJ for a fantastic golf show. We had a great time and we sold a lot of clubs. We also had a lot of fun. As usual our trip was not without a lot of adventure. I borrowed my parents GPS system unfortunately, it does not have "Truck" settings on it (I drove in an 18 foot truck). I was probably 12 miles from my hotel and the GPS tried to put me on the Garden State Parkway- NO TRUCKS ALLOWED. I got lost in a somewhat scary part of NJ while trying to follow the Garden State parkway from the side roads. I was not in an Ask Directions kind of place either. I finally reset the GPS to get me to the hotel avoiding toll roads and I was on my way.

As usual the weather was horrible when we went to set up. It was snowing when we left our hotel on Friday morning to get to the Garden State Expo Center. The friendly desk clerk at the Crown Plaza in Clark NJ
directed us to the wrong convention center. We went to the NJ Boat Show. While trying to figure out the name of our expo center we also ran over a giant muffler with our truck and got it lodged under the truck and I tried to get our paperwork for the show out of the back of the truck during the snow storm. Once I retrieved it I could not close the truck again. I was frustrated, frostbitten and furious by the time we got to the Garden State Expo Center. Fortunately, our friends at Linksman golf were just about finished unloading when we arrived so we got their loading bay.

Once we were set up we raced back to the hotel for showers and a quick lunch. I would have settled for fast food but Maureen, our star employee made us order a massive take-out order from TGI Fridays. We arrived at the show 20 minutes after the general public. Nobody stole anything because NJ people are good people.

On Saturday we had a thief. Our booth was right by the loading bays for trucks. The good news was easy move-in and easy move-out and plenty of storage for us. The bad news was one of the bays was broken and it was cold - the broken door could not be closed. There was a semi-backed up to the broken bay to secure it. Some scumbag decided to sneak back there and lower golf clubs out of the broken bay into the parking lot(he was squeezing them between the semi and the wall). We caught him before he could get too much out and I think we retrieved everything. However, we did not catch him. I am a big fan of North Coast Golf Shows but I was a bit upset with them on this one. They had a very nonchalant attitude about what happened. It was a bit like, "wow, that is rally bad.... a thief huh?" "You are right, we should have put a security guard there." However, for the rest of the show they basically avoided me, made no effort to repair the door or secure the area. They did not want to touch the subject or converse with me about what happened. They did point out all of the other unsecured areas that surrounded my booth!

The final challenge of the show was on Sunday morning when somebody hit 8 perfect toe shots with our driver demo. By perfect, I mean off the toe, around the nets and directly into the PVC pipe that holds up our driving range. On the 8th shot the PVC pipe cracked and the range came tumbling down!

All that aside- getting lost, crime, broken driving ranges etc. we had a great time in NJ. We had fun at the show, we enjoyed the people and our truck was pretty empty on the ride home. Apparently NJ loves GRIP and we love NJ!

End of the Boston Show

I always like to put a positive spin on things but the Boston golf Expo was positively awful. My biggest mistake was not leaving at 4:00 PM on fiiday night and letting my more than qualified GRIP staff handle the 18 people that showed up to the Seaport Expo Center in Boston. Saturday was bad, and Sunday was brutal as well. Not only was it a holiday weekend in Boston but it was alos school vacation week. I still think that there were plaenty of people in the greater Boston area for the weekend but the show was poorly advertised if advertised at all. So, Boo Hoo for all of us that paid for expensive booths (Boston is the most expensive show to attend East of the Mississippi).

GRIP had some additional issues that may cause us to skip the Boston show next year even though it is close to home and technically our "Local" show. Our booth was sold to us as "Near the manufacturers Demo Range and close to the Lady's Golf Experience." When we arrived, we quickly noticed that our booth was burried behind the Manufacturer's demo range and right in the middle of the Lady's Golf Experience. As potential customers came down the aisly they saw a huge sign that said, "Lady's Golf Experience." If the sign did not deter them, the Ping Lady's reps and the Callaway Lady reps would clearly inform them that men's clubs were the next aisle over.

Jim from Paragon Expos reminded me that this was the booth I wanted. I don't actually remember wanting a booth in the lady's section and burried behind a driving range. Jim was convinced that when he spoke to us on the phone we were elated that this booth was avaialble. The truth is that Jim would not commit space to us for almost 2 months. During that time he cut out a nice piece of space for Wildcard Golf that would have worked for us nicely. Wildcard registerd for the show well after us. We know because they told us. I am pretty sure that I am one of many who will require a good incentive to go back to Boston next year.

I would like to thank, my wife, the GRIP staff, Andy, Wendy, Gina, and Paul for helping me at the show, keeping me sane and making me laugh as we watched half the attendees get withing 7 feet of our booth and announce that "this is the lady's section! lets get out of here!"

What Next?

A UPS Trailer exploded. Guess what was on it? You got it a much larger than average GRIP Golf Iron, Wood, and Driver order.


Fire Erupts In UPS Trailer; Packages Destroyed
Posted by roboblogger 1 hr ago
A United Parcel Service trailer carrying packages caught on fire early Friday in southwest suburban Hodgkins read the rest from MSNBC

Tracking Detail

Your package has experienced an exception.

Tracking Number:
1Z 6E8 xxxx xxxx xxxxx

Type:
Package

Status:
Exception See description below

Shipped To:
RACELAND, LA, US

Shipped/Billed On:
02/12/2008

Service:
GROUND

Weight:
9.00 Lbs


Location
Date
Local Time
Description
HODGKINS,IL, US
02/15/2008
7:00 A.M.
NATURAL DISASTER
HODGKINS,IL, US
02/14/2008
12:21 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
SHREWSBURY,MA, US
02/13/2008
12:49 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
SHREWSBURY,MA, US
02/12/2008
9:03 P.M.
ORIGIN SCAN

02/12/2008
4:02 P.M.
PICKUP SCAN
US
02/12/2008
3:09 P.M.
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Boston Golf Show

Wow, what can I say...last year it poured on the opening Friday night of the Boston Show and I left feeling optimistic because I had a few late visitors that bought from my timy 10x10 booth that only offered Hybrids, Wedges, and Putters.

Welcome to 2008, new venue, biggger booth, and two employees with me. The show was about as crowded Fenway Park in November. I remember last year you had to make a "Te Time" to get a Ping fitting. Today I saw the Pink reps loafing aroung eating pretzels like the good people at GRIP. Lets hope for a better tomorrow.

Potato man

I am not sure where he came from but we had him in washington and he is in boston with us too.

Boston Golf Show

Last year was my first Boston Golf Show. I secured a booth at the last minute and had a few signs made. I worked the entire 3 days of the show by myself selling Hybrids, Putters and Wedges in a crowded 10x10 space. I rented a minivan and jammed everything I need into the van. Moving in was awful. It was pouring and cold all day and small companies with little booths and tiny vans were not welcome in the garage. I survived and had a pretty good show.

Fast forward to one year later. I now have plenty of help for the show but I loaded most of the truck myself yesterday. My local paper, The Worcester Telegram and Gazette summarized it best in their Headline "Cold, Wet, Wild." Here is a small excerpt summarizing the area by our Northborough Office and Warehouse:

"As much as 6 inches of water flooded some sections of Route 9, including the area near Bertucci’s restaurant in Westboro. Sections of East Main Street at Lyman Street and near McDonald’s also flooded. Crews from the state highway department and the Westboro Department of Public Works worked throughout the day to free clogged catch basins around town. Around 11 a.m., a water main break near Route 140 and Woodland Road in Shrewsbury didn’t help things. Police spent the day redirecting traffic through the residential area, just south of the center of town. "

With out a doubt, the worst weather to load an 18 foot truck in. Man, was I chilly and wet.


Today is a balmy 14 degrees for move-in. I have been here since 6:00 AM paying bills and getting orders ready so we can leave for move-in this morning. Anything is better than pouring rain. I have included a couple of nice pictures of 7:30 AM at our offices. It is nice to have your office over a driving range. Especially when you are in the golf business! By the way, the range is open. You can hit right out into the snow and ice from the heated bays. The grass tees are obviously closed. The Little Suzuki Samuri that you seein the snow is permanently parked in that spot. It is used as a 125 marker. It should be noted that the grass tees move around all summer so sometimes it is as close as 75 yards. When the tees are that close we hear a lot of "Look Dad, I just hit that over 125 yards!"