We love free shit!

I worked at the Vancouver Home show this weekend. The Vancouver 'home and garden' show I should say. It happens every year, may even be twice a year I think. Moms come from far and wide with strollers and carseats, in-laws and husbands dragged along.

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I used to be one of those women, but not this year. This year, I was one of the exhibitors. My company is one of western canada's distributor for hardwood flooring, so we had a booth there. ("booth' is a bit of an understatemtent. It was a $20,000 - 500sqft advertisement)

I couldn't believe the company paid as much for this as I did for my car!

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Anyway, once I was there, I had a chance to observe the kind of people who go to these things. They all look normal at first, but I think one gets dumber by the minute while inside a home show exhibition....

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Otherwise smart men and women seemed to gather around like caddle around the 'chef' who was chopping all the onions and green peppers. "Ooohs" and "Ahhhs" all around as the amazing chopper cut your chopping time in half. They were practically throwing money at this guy to get their hands on the new 'best kept secret' in the kitchen.

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Then there was the gal who demonstrates the swiffer mop. Oh, how glad everyone was to see her! Oodles of old ladies gasped as the mop cleans even residue that has been stuck on since the last time she cleaned....which incidentally was just a few minutes ago, with a different crowd.

The mop was $19.99 but WAIT, you get a second one FREE!! I'm telling you they were buying those stupid yellow mops like they were going out of style.

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There was another booth there with a guy demonstrating how he was loosing weight by having this big black belt strapped on to him. It was emitting heat apparantly and he would be sweating off the pounds without lifting a finger. He recommended wearing this gadget everywhere, to work, shopping, on dates. The fact that he's plugged into a machine, while he was belted in, apparantly is no cause for alarm. Just adds to the charm I guess.

I've come to two conclusions: First that these homeshows seem to be nothing more than an expensive over-hyped infomercial. Second, that I really appreciate NOT being in the retail industry after this weekend. (Our company does not sell directly to Joe and Jane Homeowner, we're a distributor, meaning we sell to floor stores only, they then turn around and sell to the public)

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But it wasn't all bad. I did walk around after my shift and get a few free samples. I came home with 2 rolls of the new ROYALE 3 ply toilet paper and more free razors (the kind with the shaving cream build inside them already) to last a small european country for a year.

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Oh yeah, my weekend was THAT good!

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