Melbourne Home Show

[kylie]

I was wandering around the home show in Melbourne last weekend when I came across a stand for a Vitamix. It looked quite good and there were LOTS of people around, watching, talking, and tasting.
I haven't seen this before, and had I not seen a Thermomix before, I would have been quite impressed!
A couple of things I noticed that stand out as the differences - obviously Vitamix doesn't cook, although it does heat things like soup if you leave it running. I also saw the demonstrater having to absolutely bash the food down with the plunger thing to get it down onto the blades! Because it has no reverse function, everything gets blended - I guess it is a blender after all. Oh, and the cost... the show special on the Vitamix was $879 - and their warranty is 7 years.
Anyway.... as I continued to wander around, I was sad that I didn't find a Thermomix demonstrater there, but I wondered if this type of show has been done before and didn't turn out to be profitable?

[judydawn]

I think the TMX should always be presented at these type of places - they would have to makes sales surely 

[maddy]

The last field day I went to had swarms of people around the TM stand.
I guess it depends if there is volunteers to demonstrate, or could it be the cost of an exhibit site as a factor?

[kylie]

I'm sure the cost of a site at a show like that must be somewhat expensive. Often with these things a group of consultants gets together and shares the cost and the time there - this show was on for four days. On the Vitamix stand there were two guys alternating doing the demo's - and I was only there one day so there may have been other consultants doing the same thing on the other days.
They had two machines running, and each demo consisted first of making a soup, showing how it blended all the ingredients and then they put that one on a machine behind them to run for a few minutes. In the meantime, they used a second machine to make a juice, which was quick and easy and they gave out samples in those little disposable cups. Then, they made 'ice cream' - fruit and ice cubes, which they also handed out, and by then the soup was ready and everyone had a taste of that too.