Shopsmith Forums

I was thinking about this the other day - those guys that do the travelling roadshows at costco do pretty well. Huge foot traffic, and costco buyers tend to be a little above average on the income. They are also used to spending big money from time to time, and understand the value of things like buying in bulk or buying for the long term.

Just a thought - seems like it could be great - and perhaps more profitable than the lowes demos.

I wonder if some exposure on the QVC shopping channel would work?
Bill V

Two good ideas.
Exposure is probably the key word, no?
Wonder if anyone is listening?

Not a bad idea. The only drawback to folks shopping at Costco, Sam's, The Price Club type venue is that they are mainly there to purchase their household items and such. It is the whole idea of saving by purchasing in bulk. A trial test would have to be conducted to see if there would be any interest by folks using those types of shopping venues. Especially when you're dealing with a hobby/interest as specialized as woodworking.

I agree that Lowes and HD do not have a lot to be desired though. Most folks (especially in the Baltimore Area) just run in and out to get what they need or to purchase needed home repair/maintenance/up-grade items for installation. It is a get in, get what you need, and get out type thing. Even the contractors that I know don't want to spend any more time in those stores than necessary. They are just such a pain to deal with. And the help, well let's just say most of the help in those stores are not very knowledgeable or even helpful. That is when you can find somebody to even ask.

Are Costcos, Sam's and Price Club all membership outlets. If they are, there would be a limiting factor from the getgo.

Whatever, it seems to me that expanded internet exposure is a necessity. Yes, demonstrations are important and would have to be worked into the marketing scheme to maintain long term survivability. What we don't know is just how sales are going right now. Without that information, this is all supposition.

dusty wrote:Are Costcos, Sam's and Price Club all membership outlets. If they are, there would be a limiting factor from the getgo.

Whatever, it seems to me that expanded internet exposure is a necessity. Yes, demonstrations are important and would have to be worked into the marketing scheme to maintain long term survivability. What we don't know is just how sales are going right now. Without that information, this is all supposition.

Yes, costco and sams are membership based. But realistically speaking, the cost of a shopsmith new is a pretty significant limiting factor already. Certainly the fair circuit did well for them for a long time, but realistically speaking the cost of a Shopsmith puts it into the up-scale market to some degree. Seems like it would be similar to what I understand the old mall demos would have been, but a bit more of a focused crowd.

I think that we are currently living in an era that is extremely difficult to effectively determine where the best return in marketing lays. Given the fundamental change in how people receive information, and the teetering economy, if must be very difficult to invest a lot of capital in marketing.

easterngray wrote:I think that we are currently living in an era that is extremely difficult to effectively determine where the best return in marketing lays. Given the fundamental change in how people receive information, and the teetering economy, if must be very difficult to invest a lot of capital in marketing.

Yes, and it is also VERY IMPORTANT to NOT "pre-qualify" who you bother to expose your product to...
The very best place to demo Shopsmiths may well be right out on the sidewalk on Wall Street. Many of those guys intend to be another person when they go home. The world is full of closet woodworkers... Look at Andy Rooney.
Who better to sell a Shopsmith to than some bored desk jockey that has the price of a PowerPro in his suit and briefcase... but wants to be a real person at home.


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In this day and age with Internet marketing and streaming video the Internet is the way to go. Unless, your target market doesn’t have those capabilities, which is why they offer the DVD. Serving streaming video is much cheaper than pressing disks and mailing it out.

If Shopsmith should do anything – they should update their pitch. They are doing themselves any favors with the old infomercial from the mid/early 90s. Chances are the pitch can be shortened to a 5 minute sell to reduce production costs. The 30 minute format was meant for TV informercials and since they aren't doing them any more, I doubt the margins on the sales were good enough anyways.

Yes, I understand production is expensive, but watch the Sawdust Therapy infomercial. Can we say sweater vest, dark stained oaks 90s hair/clothes and the youngest person in the video looks about 50.

If it is going to be your main pitch, then don’t start by shooting yourself in the foot. When I some Craigslist item I got a box of old woodworking magazines. Maybe of the popular items in the mags were country themed, i.e. jelly cupboards. A lot of woodworking project are much different then 20 years ago.

Yesterday, I went by the Lowe's Store in Catonsville to check out the Shosmith Demo. It wasn't that I was really looking to buy anything specifically and this particular Lowe's is not one I typically buy from anyway (just not a location in my daily travels). But anyhow, I wanted to see the demo that everybody was talking about and get a firsthand look at the New Power Pro. I have to admit that I wasn't all that impressed with Lowes. When I first walked in and asked a couple of the associates (I guess that is what they call them) about the demo they were advertising, they looked at me like I had three heads and had no idea what I was talking about. They were not even interested in checking with a manager or anybody else to see if something was going on. Thus, it just goes solidifying my original opinions on customer service with these big box stores. I did find the Shopsmith Demo. They were set up in the tool area (as I would have suspected) and the guy doing the demo was very nice. I walked up and we talked a bit. And after assessing the Shopsmith system I already have, he gave me a demo of the Power Pro and the upgraded 520 table upgrade. I really liked the features offered by the Power Pro and the beefier fence of the 520. He also showed me the benefits of the double tilting Mark 7 upgrade. That was also very impressive. But, I could tell that he hadn’t had a whole lot of interest while he was there. Plus, they (Lowes) had the demo stuffed between a couple of isles in the tool department. They just didn't allow for adequate space to set up a demo to really promote any interest. One other person walked up while I was there. He listened to some of the demo, nodded a couple of times in agreement and walked away not really interested. I know this is kind of getting long winded. But, the demo guy (wish I had gotten his name) gave me a disk and a price sheet for the special pricing Shopsmith was offering. Plus, he also mentioned that if I were to buy anything on the list with my Lowes Card that I would also get an extra 5% discount. A Ha! That tells me that Lowes Corporate is only offering this opportunity to Shopsmith to boost sales of their credit cards. It was obvious that the store itself (I'm guessing this all falls on the individual store managers) wasn't really interested in helping to promote this demo/event in their location.