NRA Chicago 2006

We just got back from the NRA show in Chicago. As usual the show was very busy. And as many of you may already know, President Bush came by for a speech.

Days 1,2 and 3 seemed even busier than last year as far as foot traffic down the aisles. From our perspective (we were not near food which draws the most foot traffic) Tuesday was off by nearly 50% foot traffic from last year. Overall most vendors in the North and South upstairs were happy. Vendors downstairs complained of light traffic overall.

As usual you see a lot of new products. The best one I saw was from someone who wasn't even exhibiting. Payam Lavi of convenience enterprises came by our booth and showed me a picture of an automatic silverware/napkin wrapper. A good idea considering that job is typically done by a server towards the end of his or her shift. Aside from being typically unsanitary, the labor savings of using a machine to perform this job function seem obvious.