On the heels of a busy PrimeTime in Phoenix, Nationwide Marketing Group’s appliance team was in Orlando for the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show (KBIS). We sat down to talk about the trends they spotted, products and experiences that stood out and more.

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Rob Stott: We’re back on the Independent Thinking Podcast. And no rest for the weary. That’s the quote, right, you guys? We’re hopping right into it. It’s been nonstop since post PrimeTime. And I’m excited to have two guys who the FNB team might have something to say about this, but have been some of the widest travelers since PrimeTime.

But no, Mr. John O’Halloran and Mr. John. The John and John podcast today, J and J. We’re hopping into it. And I just appreciate you guys taking some time and finding time, I guess, really, to sit down with me and have a little chat here today.

John O’Halloran: Yeah. Thanks, Rob. We’re excited. John and I have been obviously on the road quite a bit, even jumping out of PrimeTime, on a plane, getting late into Orlando on Tuesday night. So we can spend a good amount of time at the Kitchen and Bath Show. But we’re excited to be here to talk a little bit about some of the things that we saw and some of the exciting things that our members can expect to see here in the future.

Rob Stott: Absolutely. But before we go, obviously KBIS was a big thing coming out of it. Before we jump into that, well, nice to hear you guys were able to get out there before all the waste management craziness and the hole-in-ones and beer bottles being thrown and things like that. We were in Phoenix and you mentioned it, we were there for PrimeTime for a good week.

Rob Stott: To both of you, have you had a chance to digest and reflect on what that experience was like? Because I know we got a lot to talk about between the reworked Luxury University and PrimeTime backyard. How was it just? O’Halloran, we’ll start with you. What’s your reaction to how that week was?

John O’Halloran: Well, it was great week. Any chance we have to get in front to engage with the membership, really it’s the highlight. I call it the Super Bowl for us. We did some things differently on the luxury side. The first thing that I’ll mention that was very exciting is we did announce two new partnerships on the luxury, to fill into our luxury strategy. We’ve got some great partners with Monogram, Fisher Paykel. And we made a great announcement during the merchandise session that we now have a strategic partnership with Dacor and with Thermador.

That was really, really exciting to do. We’re constantly working, trying to find the right strategic vendor partners that make sense to support our membership and that want to incrementally support our members. And we know we have them with Dacor and with Thermador. So it’s a compliment to the vendors that we already have. And then we did something also different too. With Luxury University, we launched it PrimeTime in August, which was more of a classroom type atmosphere.

Luxury is about experience, so we wanted to change it up a little bit and bring Luxury University to the expo floor and create an experience. So during the day on Monday, we did a special invite-only event for Monogram retailers, in the Monogram booth. We had a wine sommelier demonstrate the proper way to open a bottle of champagne, which is wicked.

Rob Stott: With or without a machete, mind you.

John O’Halloran: Well, he did the traditional way, but then he demonstrated to everybody how to do it with a machete, which was so cool.

Rob Stott: Unreal.

John O’Halloran: So we had an opportunity to engage with their executive team, our members did. And really, to cheer the success we’ve had with Monogram in 2021 and really celebrate new opportunities it’s going to bring our members in 2022. That was really exciting. And then with the launch of our new partnership with Thermador, we had a special cocktail experience event at their booth later in the day on Monday.

And you know what was really neat is BSH was not participating in KBIS this year, but we were fortunate enough to have them participate at PrimeTime. So we had their Senior Vice President of Sales, Chris Kaeser, as well as their CEO, Christopher von Nagel. That was really exciting for us and to have the engagement and experience with our members.

So a lot of really neat things we did, we look to expand on as we continue with PrimeTime. It was the biggest PrimeTime we’ve ever had with luxury. And how do we keep raising the bar? That’s the question. So we look forward to taking that challenge on.

Rob Stott: Absolutely. A lot’s going on, on the luxury side. And I know Mr. Laing outdoor, you had some really awesome things happening too. Talk us through what PrimeTime was like for you.

John Laing: Yeah. Thanks, Rob. It’s not very often we have a venue that allows us to do experiential cooking with outdoor products and our vendor partners look forward to it. There’s a lot of extra work on their behalf. But our members especially look forward to it, because it’s a relaxing atmosphere. They get a chance to see the experts cooking, learning from them, certainly tasting their food, smelling it. Really touching all the senses, which is exactly what we hope that they are doing back at their stores during promotional periods with their customers.

So I love the backyard opportunity that we had in Phoenix. Like I said, it doesn’t happen very often. We hope it happens again in August, in Orlando, at the hotel we’ll be at. That part’s great. The funny thing you is John O’Halloran works the luxury side with champagne and machetes, my folks are working with beer and cutlery knives. So it’s just the difference between folks.

Rob Stott: Just a little different, but yet there’s something that relates to both you guys is you talk about the experience. And I think of what the experience was like being in the Monogram booth and being with Thermador during the events that they held. And it was about how you create that in-store experience for the customer on the luxury side.

And then same too goes for the backyard and creating all of those sensory things going on between the smells and the tastes of all the delicious food that was being cooked. It really boils down to you guys showing during PrimeTime what retailers can be doing to create that experience to entice customers.

John O’Halloran: Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more. And you know what? It’s been challenging because of COVID, so a lot of these things have not been in play. So I think it’s a great example of what members can be doing. But also, hey, as people are more comfortable, let’s try to get back to that because I think the experience side of our members and what they can offer consumers, is one of the big differentiators between them and say, the big box stores. Yeah. So it’s exciting. And at the backyard barbecue, I have to say it was awesome. It really was.

Rob Stott: I’ve never seen meatloaf be smoked before, and that was just mind-blowing and eye-opening to me. Between that and all the other things, it was really cool. Really cool.

John Laing: Yeah. I love the fact that the vendor partners that have pit masters on their staff come and cook for us. Curtis at Traeger, he’s a world champion pit master. We had Vision Grills there, which was a brand new vendor of ours. We’re excited to have them aboard. They had Damon and Lu, husband and wife, Holter from Croix Valley there. They too are pit masters. They too compete nationally and on TV. In fact, I just heard this week that Vision Grills is going to now be on Hell’s Kitchen.

Rob Stott: Ah. Oh, cool.

John Laing: They’re going to be using their grills and the new gas insert that goes inside of their grill, to actually be able to cook and show how you can cook with gas on Kamado grill. So just really appreciative of all the vendor partners and the talent that they brought, and the food that they laid out.

Rob Stott: Hey, me too. And I’m sure our members are too. And that’s what I wanted to ask next is to both of you. What kind of feedback are you hearing from members about what those experiences were like for them?

John Laing: I’ll go first. I guess what we heard from a lot of vendors early on in the show is that yes, the attendance was down a little bit at PrimeTime from normal, but the folks that were there were much more engaged. They wanted to learn more about the products. They were signing up as new dealers or committing to furthering discussions as soon as they got home.

They were very much, and I keep using the word engaged, because they really were engaged. And really, they had the opportunity, a little better opportunity to talk to vendors because there was lesser attendance. So they were able to get around, have longer discussions, deeper discussions with the people they needed to. That part of it was great, even though the attendance was down a little.

John O’Halloran: Yeah. I think John said it all. Really, it was a great opportunity for our members. And that’s what I keep hearing, to engage with the right people that they wanted to interact with at the show. So if they’re having a challenge, they had the executive team there to go and express the challenge with them to try to find a solution, if there is opportunities there looking for new vendor partners or wanted to expand a relationship.

Luxury is a lot of excitement. Our business and luxury is a channel that has grown over last year almost 20%. And so it continues to grow. So there’s a lot of interest in members that maybe are not carrying luxury appliances to try to get involved in that business. So it’s an opportunity, because it’s not a light switch. It takes time to plan. It’s a significant investment, but it’s a great opportunity to start those conversations with the right people. So it was very positive.

Rob Stott: Now, that’s awesome. I think we hear, and this is a nice segue too into talking about other shows is that, that’s been the vibe right now. It’s that show attendance, we’re in a weird spot with COVID and everything going. Mandate’s starting to come down, but still attendance is a little hesitant from people in terms of getting out.

We saw CES, 20% of the normal attendance there. That’s crazy to think about, but I know that to both of your points, the attendance that is there, the people that are there, they want and they’re getting those meaningful interactions with those key players. And that brings me to KBIS. I don’t know if you had time to do any laundry in between, so I imagine you packed before the show.

But like you said, you went right from Phoenix out to Orlando and what they were doing out there at KBIS. What was the show like? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think they got one off in 2021, obviously, but 2020 was the last time they had the show? Did they squeak it in time?

John O’Halloran: Yeah. I believe 2020 was the last time they had the show, right, John? John was there. I was not there.

Rob Stott: So, this being the first show in two years, what was the atmosphere like to be back? And just before diving into specifics about it, what was it like for you guys to be back?

John O’Halloran: Well, it was exciting. There was a lot of energy, because it’s an interesting community. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of influencers. It’s a lot of architects. It’s designers. It’s kitchen dealers. We do have appliance retailers there, but it’s not just appliances. There’s countertops. There’s cabinetry. If it’s anything to do with the kitchen and bath, it’s there. In addition, it wasn’t just the Kitchen and Bath Show. It was IBIS.

Rob Stott: Right.

John O’Halloran: Right?

Rob Stott: Yeah.

John O’Halloran: The Builders’ Show. So you’re bringing all sorts of different groups of people together. So there was a lot of energy and a lot of excitement, because people have not had a chance to interact with each other similar to PrimeTime.

Rob Stott: How about for you, John? Laing, I should say.

John Laing: Yeah, that’s fine. I figured it was my turn. It’s great for me. I try to attend every year, this show. And I don’t think John O’Halloran’s been for a couple years, but it’s just great to be amongst a group of people that they’re really engaged with their business and they put their best foot forward typically in these shows, whether it be the booth type or people that are there. So it was great to be back in action.

And frankly, while there were COVID concerns and they had some checks and balances in terms of getting into the show, I think for the most part, folks didn’t wear masks. We’d say probably only 20% of the people were wearing masks inside the show floor. And John and I are perfectly healthy after two shows and coming back, shaking a lot of hands and kissing a lot of babies.

Rob Stott: No, that’s right.

John O’Halloran: Which feels good.

Rob Stott: Yeah. Yeah, that’s awesome.

John O’Halloran: And I think it also goes to show that there’s people who are just comfortable being back and in person with each other.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

John O’Halloran: So, it’s nice to see. It’s like life is back.

Rob Stott: I hear you. And to your point, we can go back to that experience term. If you go from a show like PrimeTime, where not to say booths are not experiential, we found that they were and you’re certainly getting a lot of up close and touching of products and things like that, but having been to KBIS and seeing what they do there, they really lean into that experience.

And this being the first show back and coming off of a virtual show where there was these virtual booths and things like that, I know they did it up. Explain the difference to someone who’s never been to KBIS, what it’s like going from a PrimeTime booth to some of the stuff that you see at KBIS.

John O’Halloran: Well, I think, and I’ll sum it up when we talk, as we talk about the GE Monogram and the whole GE experience that they had there, but these shows are international. You’re getting people from all over the world. So it’s a platform that allows these manufacturers to really showcase and debut the latest and greatest in innovations. And to do that, they have to do it an environment that meets their expectations.

So, what do I mean by that? The first experience we had when we walked into the show, it was a GE profile cafe and Monogram. And so we walked right into the cafe booth. And there was three separate booths, but they were all lined up next to each other. And in the center of the booth, it was set up like a jewelry store. Okay.

Rob Stott: Interesting.

John O’Halloran: The cafe is known for somewhat customization. They’ve got these different color options. It’s beautiful providence. And so they had two individuals behind the counter that were acting like jewelers, and you would talk with them and they would break out a jewelry box and they would have the different color selections in a jewelry box in these little chips. It was just an incredible presentation. So it set the tone and the mood for as you’re walking around and interacting with their team, and experiencing the product and then having conversations with people. That was really, really neat.

Then to Monogram, which is one of our very strong partners here, they had the booth set up into really three different, almost like villas. Okay. They had a farm, a mountain, and a beach type experience. All right. So it’s a completely different experience that people have when they walk through. And it gives I think the vendors and the designers that are helping them with their booths, really an opportunity to say, there’s no limits in what we can do.

Rob Stott: Wow.

John O’Halloran: And because of it, GE between the three booths, won best in show for the booth.

Rob Stott: Yeah.

John O’Halloran: John, I don’t know if you wanted to add anything to it, but it was neat.

John Laing: Yeah. No, it’s an amazing experience, I guess, to go to a Kitchen and Bath Show or a builder show, both because they put their best foot forward. It was a little unusual at this show to see some empty spaces that people pulled out, like Bosch did at the last minute. There were a number of other ones that either didn’t show anything, or they showed five pieces in a 2,000 square-foot booth. It was just a little weird.

However, those that did show, I think ZLINE Kitchen, they were showing some new products. So unlike PrimeTime where you had full access to what you could see, you couldn’t even get in the booth without some person going in with you, because they were showing some new stuff. So I think on a Kitchen and Bath Show, they will show some new products and it’s their opportunity to showcase the brand. So it was a little more brand focused I would say big picture, in addition to showing some new products.

Rob Stott: Mr. Laing, having been to a number of these shows over the years, talking about how John described that GE experience and the way they presented themselves, is that common? Has that changed over time? How has the KBIS experience evolved from your perspective?

John Laing: I don’t think it really has. It’s unusual as I said on the extra space, but people always have been putting their best foot forward since KBIS and IBS joined hands in terms of having a show together, which was gosh, 13, 14 years ago. It is a great show from the clientele of people that come. There’s people that come with a lot of money.

They’re always dressed very nicely and they’re ready to talk business. And you look at booths like Kohler and Delta and some of these people in the bath business and what they put forward in a show is incredible. So it doesn’t change that much. It was just a little bit weird from what normal is in terms of participants.

Rob Stott: Sure. One thing that always interests me is the consumer tech background. It’s seeing technology infused into this show too. Did you guys notice that this year? Was there a lot more emphasis or more than normal on just the amount of smart features and things like that in product?

John O’Halloran: I think everybody’s talking about the smart and the connected home, which is a big buzzword, but it was more showcasing. What I’ve experienced in innovation was not necessarily focused on techy type things. It was more on design. Okay.

For example, we saw, and I think it was actually one of the winners of best in show, LG has an elevated brand SKS, Signature Kitchen Suite. And they debuted a 48-inch French door, fully integrated refrigerator. And so you can quickly use the platform-

Rob Stott: That’s a lot of food you can fit in there.

John O’Halloran: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, it was beautiful, right?

Rob Stott: Absolutely.

John O’Halloran: Because we’re used to seeing in a built-in application, a 48-inch as a side by side. So to have a French door? The innovation was the size, but it was also you had … And the drawers and the freezer drawers, one of them was convertible, so it could also be a refrigerator.

John O’Halloran: One drawer was dedicated solely to ice. You had normal cubes, but then you had their craft ice, which are the nice balls that they have. They’re clear ice. That was more of the innovation that I experienced. I don’t know if you saw anything different, John, but it was more focused on design I would say.

John Laing: Yeah. So I would just add to that, I guess, that connected home products where you can really make a difference in the consumer’s life is becoming the norm. You have to have it just to get in the game. And then, are you doing the right things to get it connected to the whole system, whether it be with Nest or some other whole home solution to manage the environment? One winner is a vendor partner of ours, LG. Had the best connected home product in an air purifier.

So it is becoming more prevalent, but it’s almost just the entree to being in products. I would say water heaters we looked at, that’s definitely going to be … That is a connected home product today, and is getting more and more so. Anything to affect the consumer’s lives and make it better, if we can do so with adding innovation in the connected home, it’s definitely prevalent in new products.

Rob Stott: No, that’s awesome. Now, obviously talking to both of you, you have different approaches to just what you do here at Nationwide between the luxury space and appliance and outdoor. Do you guys take the different approaches to how you go about engaging with the KBIS and walking around the show floor?

John Laing: I guess I’ll start, I have more tribal knowledge on how the show works, the layout. I’ve been to the facilities before, so it helps frankly, just getting around and staying coordinated. Because we visited, oh gosh, some 60 booths, 60 booths while we were there and had conversations with a lot of folks, obviously. Some of those are existing vendors of ours and some are prospective vendors that have an interest in Nationwide.

You’ll talk to Mark Spear, I think, who’s with Nationwide, who was there on the market or product business development side. And he can give you his report out, but we were there to find products that best match our membership and things that can be successful. So I was trying to, I guess, follow John O’Halloran for the first day on luxury products and then do my own thing, looking at other new vendors and such.

Rob Stott: John, before you dive into luxury, one followup for you. What is outdoor like there? Because I can’t imagine you’re seeing a lot of grills at KBIS and things like that. But what’s the outdoor presentation like, and what does it bring to the table?

John Laing: Yeah. So it’s not as certainly prevalent as what you would see at other shows, like the Hearth and Patio Show, maybe even the National Hardware Show. So there were a few grill vendors there and I made a point, John and I, saw one luxury grill vendor that we’re very encouraged by, that we hope to forge a partnership with. But it’s definitely different than the big shows. No outdoor cooking backyard kind of thing.

Rob Stott: It’s on for a missed opportunity.

John Laing: Yes.

Rob Stott: How about on the luxury side?

John O’Halloran: Well, I think just to add, because the luxury was a big focus for what we’re trying to do and establish, connect with caring vendor partners there, see what they had. As well as like John said, there’s other people and other vendors that are interested in talking to us because of what we’re doing on the luxury side. But we did this very much in tandem.

We were side by side, going after and talking, engaging with people. John’s got a lot of experience in relationships through his career, outside of Nationwide and inside of Nationwide, as well as I do. So it was a great compliment and I was honored to walk around with John because his pace of getting around to see as many people as we saw was amazing. We saw close to 60 vendors.

I was there at the show for one day, but I think it was a pleasure to work with John on this because we just really complimented the conversations we had and really showed the importance, how serious we are and what we’re trying to do to support our members. Whether it was outdoor, whether it was luxury, or whether it was premium appliances, we were able to cover all aspects of our merchandise for the appliance business.

Rob Stott: Sounds busy. It overwhelms me to think about that number of booths in a single day for you guys, but that also means you got the opportunity to see a lot of products and hear about how those products are being presented and pitched and get a good sense of what these brands, what these vendors are focusing on. So to both you, was there any specific trend from this show that stood out as you go around talking to all these vendors?

John Laing: I’ll just start with, they did not win an award that I’m aware of, but Beko, B-E-K-O, one of our fastest, the fastest growing appliance brand within the house of Nationwide, had new dishwashers that they were showing at Kitchen and Bath. They had showed them at PrimeTime as well, but had a little more flare to showing the dishwasher and how it worked at this show. That probably comes out in April. Very, very cool.

But beyond the product itself, there’s a message from Zach Elkin, the CEO of the US, that they’re on this path of sustainability globally, and they’re showcasing products that help prove that out. IE, a new refrigeration product that’s coming out this summer. They were privately showing that and will help keep your food fresh even longer than their current system.

So those kinds of things, and the fact that they’re using plastic water bottles in some of their insulation product. And just little things like this, Beko is on top of their game when it comes to that.

Rob Stott: Yeah. And I think about my experience hearing from their global CEO at ETHA a couple years ago. And you mentioned them in sustainability. Arçelik, I think I’m saying that. Arçelik or Arçelik the parent brand, I think about the laundry pair that they showed up and micro plastics being a big focus on filtering those out. So it’s cool to hear about how that filters down to all of their brands as well, and including here in the US with Beko. That’s awesome. That’s cool to hear. How about other John? What kind of trends stood out to you at this show?

John O’Halloran: Well, I think sustainability is an important trend in our industry today, and more vendors are trying to maintain or trying to have more sustainable practices. It was a lot of it, design. When you think luxury, high design. I mentioned the SKS 48-inch fully fleshed refrigerator. That’s a new design. Monogram bespoke is a big term. So, how do you customize? And that’s part of luxury, something that’s customized and personal to the individual.

So, what was neat for Monogram is they launched a whole new collection. They had some custom hoods that were titanium. One was titanium and one was brass. And they also had some custom handle options now that were available that John and I saw. And it’s not just refrigerators that some people are used to when you put a custom wood panel on a refrigerator and you add in a custom handle to match the hardware. It was on their new professional range.

They actually had a leather handle, which it looked beautiful. So I think customization, manufacturers are trying to get a little bit more involved in that. GE’s done a great job on the cafe side of doing that. And so I think we’re starting to see that now evolve more onto the Monogram side. So it’d be trying to see what other manufacturers do.

But other brands that we spoke to, like MILA, for example, they won an award for their new 7,000 series steel oven that’s 30 inches wide, which is a unique piece. So lot of high design, I think, when it comes to the ultra premium. And that’s what the vendors are trying to do, because that’s what the luxury consumer is looking for today.

Rob Stott: Right.

John Laing: Yeah. We had the care for wine as well in there, a lot of new products to care for wine. I forget the vendor, John O, that had the wine in a drawer, a cabinet drawer, but you can explain that for a second.

John O’Halloran: Yeah. Yeah. So Dometic, which is actually a Swedish company. I pronounced it correctly, right, John? Dometic?

John Laing: Yes.

John O’Halloran: So it was probably one of my favorite pieces I saw, because it was so innovative I thought. But what it is, is it’s wine storage becoming more and more popular, especially as people are spending more time at home and they want to showcase their wine for entertaining purposes, or they’re just looking for better solutions for wine storage. So they have a drawer. Okay. So everybody has a utensil drawer in their kitchen. Rob, you’ve got one? Okay.

John Laing: Absolutely.

John O’Halloran: And the idea is you can remove the drawer from utensil drawer and they’ve got a wine refrigerator that slides into that space. And you can install it inside that existing drawer space. And now you have refrigerator wine storage for four bottles of wine.

Rob Stott: Forks, spoons, knives. Wine? I’ll take the wine. I’ll take the wine.

John O’Halloran: How about that, right?

Rob Stott: You want to sign me up?

John O’Halloran: Yeah.

Rob Stott: That’s awesome.

John O’Halloran: You had a nice clean front that had almost like a stainless finish, but then you also had the ability to do a custom wood panel. So it would blend in seamlessly with your kitchen.

Rob Stott: I like that a lot.

John O’Halloran: Yeah. Yeah. And so that was a neat product and I think that’s a brand that you’ll start to see a little bit more in the United States here in the future.

Rob Stott: What opportunities exist? We’ve talked a lot about the product and innovations and trends you guys saw out of this show. How about bring it back to our retailers, our dealers here at Nationwide? What could they take out this show and looking to the rest of this year and beyond? What opportunities exist for them coming out of this show?

John O’Halloran: Well, I think the single biggest opportunity that I’ll speak to is the opportunity within the luxury space. We weren’t able to attend a lot of the educational sessions, but I do want to let people know that if you’re listening, you can go to the Kitchen and Bath website and they have a lot of their sessions on demand. So you can watch and understand some different trends.

The luxury space is very healthy, so we see that inside our channel. Fully expect to see the luxury space continue to grow and be a healthy segment of the business next year and the next couple years. And that was very apparent in a lot of the conversations that were had at the show. So the opportunity is, I think this is a very important space. It’s an important space to our channel, because it’s very difficult for say, big-box type vendors or retailers to execute. And this is our specialty.

We’ve got highly educated sales professionals, we’ve got highly educated delivery and installation crews, and we provide the experience that we were talking about. There’s no one better than our members that can do that. So, exciting time to be in the luxury space. And I think the bigger us opportunity is, how do we continue to as Nationwide help support our members to make sure that they continue to be the leaders in their expected marketplace?

John Laing: Yeah. I guess my two major takeaways is the status of our current business, how good it is. And then two would be new products and verticals. So a status of our current business. If you’ve been around our industry for any length of time, you know that this is the best time to be in the appliance business as a role, and the kitchen and bath business.

There’s more disposable income that people are still sitting on that they’re ready to spend if they can find someone that they can count on to actually remodel their kitchen, or they can find a new construction company that’ll actually build them their new house. And this is going to continue for at least the near future, 2022 maybe into 2023, just because of the money that’s available, the interest rates, the lack of inventory. We couldn’t be living at a better time to be in the appliance business. We just got to find enough product for them to be able to sell.

The second piece is new verticals. You attend these shows and frankly, PrimeTime, to learn about what kind of products you aren’t selling today that maybe could help balance out your portfolio and safeguard you against major issues of one particular vendor or a particular category. That’s a big focus in my world and the appliance team works hard on trying to find some of those options. And the business development side, which you’ll hear from Mark spear, is working hard on products and services that maybe aren’t in our bailiwick today that we can leverage.

Rob Stott: No, that’s awesome. And last, probably the most important question. You mentioned all the time at the GE booth. Did either of you get the chance to rub shoulders with Gwyneth Paltrow? Because I know she was there, wasn’t she?

John Laing: She was not there.

Rob Stott: Oh.

John Laing: She got COVID.

John O’Halloran: Yeah.

John Laing: She got COVID.

Rob Stott: Oh, no.

John O’Halloran: She did.

Rob Stott: Oh, no.

John O’Halloran: She did. But again, that’s a video that our members can watch on demand.

Rob Stott: There you go.

John O’Halloran: And I do want to mention too, and I didn’t bring it up because they weren’t on the show floor, but we also had an opportunity. We announced one of our new vendor partners, Dacor, and they had an offsite booth in the Topgolf parking lot. And so we had an opportunity to go and to meet the Dacor team and see the latest and greatest in product innovation from them.

John O’Halloran: So we’re really excited as we continue, because we launched that. That partnership is very fresh and we executed that within like 48 hours prior to PrimeTime. So we look forward to getting to work on them, as well as with Thermador, and coming up with some really exciting opportunities for our members to grow in those categories for those brands.

Rob Stott: Yeah. So experience and opportunity, those are the two things I pull out of this conversation and this podcast. Because there’s plenty of ways to, as we saw at PrimeTime and through KBIS, to create these experiences for customers in your retail locations. And all that does is open up the opportunity for new product and just potential to succeed in this space.

So John and John, I appreciate you guys taking the time and diving into this with us. It was great to catch up. And maybe go take a nap the two of you. I’ll allow you to go take a nap after this podcast and catch up on the sleep that you’ve missed over these last few weeks. So thank you guys.

John O’Halloran: Thanks, Rob.

John Laing: Thank you, Rob. Now’s the time to get to work, right?

Rob Stott: Absolutely. Absolutely.

John O’Halloran: All right. Thank you, Rob. Thanks, John.

John Laing: Thanks, John.