There is no other way to say it — the NPA show is great. Marty Stein and his crew have knocked it out of the park.
The exhibit hall is sold out. The place is packed. And the people there are the kind of people exhibitors want to walk into their booths at a trade show. I understand that the sessions have been well attended and going well.
One last thing: Day two was as good as day one. That is out of the ordinary. The floor today was packed, and people were buzzing. No problems here.
I spent the day asking vendors about their businesses. After the 1000 point drop in the Dow over the past week, I think we needed some perspective.
To a person, I was told that they were having a good year — sales up, 5-10% on average. They were cautious, as they didn’t know what next year would bring. However consider this:
Lower gas prices can only help the parking industry. With Oil at $90 a barrel, can the price of gas be far behind? The national average is is up a bit due to Ike, but since there was no damage to the oil patch, I expect that trend to reverse. I paid $3.57 in LA this week — thats down almost a buck from four months ago. WOW…
I would suggest that the national average next week will be down as well.
Lower prices mean more driving and more parking.
JVH
