"Six booths isn't enough," said Bud Tyska, following the 2004 West Palm Show. "Next year I need eight!"

After 10 years of shows, how does Tyska do it?

The 2004 West Palm Fishing Show was Show number ten for Tuppens, one of the largest locally owned and operated tackle stores in the Southeast.

"This was the most successful show yet," adds Bud Tyska, General manager of the store that first opened in 1956. "We've been at every Sportsman Show since the beginning. Next year we need to expand to eight booths so we can fit in another register--one register causes a constant line of people waiting to pay and they tend to get impatient."

So how does this brick and mortar store profit from devoting so many in-store resources to an off-site show?

According to Tyska, it’s not just dollar margins that make a show successful.

"The number-one reason I go to the Sportsman Show is out of respect to my industry and my year-round customers. This is their show in their back yard and I need to be there to support the sportfishing industry that supplies our customers with all this innovative tackle and gear. It’s as much a goodwill effort as it is a sales effort. Not that Tuppens doesn’t show a profit ta boot, because we do. But we don’t make money by bringing close-outs and outdated stuff. Most people that come to the Show are looking for the latest and greatest gear, so when I have the factory rep across the aisle from me showing them what’s new and I offer it to them for a slight discount over my store prices, the register is going to ring for two days straight.”

Another secret to Tuppen’s success at the Fishing Show is knowing in advance what the seminar speakers will be talking about. Tyska invites the speakers into his booth on setup day and asks, “What are you going to mention that I don’t have in my booth,” and then sends a truck back to the store to stock up on the hottest lure or the best marker buoy. “When Mark Nichols of DOA says to use the dayglow shrimp in muddy water, when he finishes his talk there’s a line at the register, all with a credit card in one hand and a packs of dayglow shrimp in the other.”

So if you’re a retailer that is considering exhibiting at a Florida Sportsman Fishing Show, consider using some of Tyska’s game plan to make the Show a success for you. After all, he’s already done ten years of R & D that can help make your two registers ring, too.