SPREE West San Jose: Show Highlights

by Nancy Tanker

Day One

We hope you were able to join us for SPREE San Jose, where retailers, wholesalers, leasing professionals and service companies came together to make deals, network and socialize. For those who were unable to attend, here are a few show highlights, excerpted from our "Breaking News from SPREE" online coverage from the show floor, posted daily on our website.

The first day of SPREE opened on a high note as a host of exhibitors showed off new products designed to attract attention and land sales in the common area. At T-Photos2Go, a division of Stitch City Industries, which has been in the embroidery business for more than 20 years, Fernando Padilla demonstrated his Paramount, CA-based company's new direct-to-garment printing concept. Padilla is developing a kiosk setup that will include a direct-to-garment digital inkjet printer that prints full-color photos on T-shirts in a matter of minutes.

The concept includes a green screen that shoppers stand in front of to have a photo taken. The green background can then be replaced with any of 150 stock images that can be customized. Or, if customers want to provide their own photos, they can use the company's T-shirt Photo Kiosk to upload and edit images, then send the digital files to the T-shirt printer. Padilla said the cost of goods for a finished photo T-shirt is approximately $2.50 and they retail for $25. The kiosk system will also include the ability to sell online.

At the MindWare booth, Tradeshow Coordinator Cathy Benjamin displayed a selection of the company's 200+ unique children's educational toys and games. Based in Roseville, MN, the company has been in the retail catalog business for 15 years and selling to retailers for about six.

A new introduction for MindWare is Qwirkle, a board game introduced in 2007 that won the 2007 "Mensa Select Award" for games that challenge the intellect and are exceptionally fun to play. "Parents these days are looking for alternatives to electronic games and MindWare definitely offers that," Benjamin said. "We have a lot of games and toys that have low retail prices, so they're great cart or kiosk impulse buys—and of course games and puzzles are great holiday items."

David Vigil, owner of Albuquerque, New Mexico-based SpecialtyRetailSales.com, attended SPREE to represent his company's two divisions: BehindtheFrame.com personalized photo frames, which has been a strong seller in the cart and kiosk market for years, and a new division, WoodRosesUSA.com, which, as its name indicates, retails and wholesales wood roses in a variety of colors.

"It's a great first-quarter product February through May, with Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, graduations, weddings, proms and any special event in a customer's life," Vigil said. Retail prices are $1 each, or $8 a dozen. "They wholesale for as little as six cents, which gives the retailer up to 1,600 percent markup," Vigil said. He tested the product on a kiosk in the Cottonwood Mall in Albuquerque this past Mother's Day. "For the nine days prior to Mother's Day, we sold 13,000 roses," he said. "Next year I'm sure it will be even better."

The booth was buzzing at Go Gizmo, a Salt Lake City company that brings together more than 100 of the hippest, edgiest iPod and mobile accessories in a turnkey cart concept. "What makes us different than other people selling iPod accessories is that we're on the cutting edge—and the way we present it to the customer as really hip and edgy, more of a lifestyle kind of presentation," said Shane Kofoed, president.

Turnkey start-up cost ranges from $10,000 to $20,000, including inventory, display plans, signage, POS system, promotional materials and more.

Kofoed tested the concept in 2006 in a Salt Lake City mall for Christmas (a location that's still open today) and the sales were "tremendous," he said.

"We went through the roof!" His goal is to open more than 50 Go Gizmo locations...a mix of corporate locations (currently there are three) and licensee locations. All are designed to be year-round. "Our corporate locations have been profitable year-round and it just gets better and better every month as we add new products," he said.

At the Danbar Toys booth, New Business and Product Development Director Kfir Barda explained his company's latest specialty retail concept: a brightly colored custom kiosk called "The Toy Kingdom," designed for product demonstration and customer interaction. Accented with strategically placed TV screens that show Danbar's products in use, sales at The Toy Kingdom locations have been amazing, Barda said. "We did £28,000 in a day on a kiosk in a London mall, and we broke a Hamleys sales record—the best seller since 1760—selling £1.2 million in one product in one year and we've become the best concession in Debenhams, selling £2.1 million in two months. We want to change the face of retail."

Danbar started in the US more than seven years ago then moved to London, England, where it's currently based. The US distributor for Danbar is Eli Trading. The company has 60 Toy Kingdom units operating across Europe, and that number increases to 120 corporate locations and another 200+ owner/operators during the holiday season. Now that the retailing concept has been perfected, the company wants to expand into the US market, where it's looking for owner/operators who want to get in on The Toy Kingdom action.