AAPEX Wrap Up

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. I thought the show would be terrible and that we would be asleep in the booths on Wednesday and Thursday, but it turned out to be a great show afterall.

Hopefully this means things are starting to turn around in the market. Only time will tell.

I did get a chance to review the new product showcase. I did not see anything of interest there. Considering what happened to everyone's revenues this year, I am not surprised to see that not a lot of R&D was done.

AAPEX so far

Day two of AAPEX is behind us and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. Traffic quality has been much better than I thought. The # of attendees is certainly down and the hall looks to have shrunk by about 30%, but the quality is still there.

Several buyers who told me they were not going to be able to come out were here and stopped by the booth. Hopefully, this is a sign that the worst is behind us.....

AAPEX is here

Tomorrow is the first day of AAPEX, www.aapexshow.com. From all accounts, attendance is supposed to be WAY down this year. I know that a lot of my customers are not attending, or are sending 1/2 to a 1/3 of the people they usally do.

I had a chance to take a quick glance at the new product section. I did not see anything that seemed exciting. I will take another look tomorrow.

Motor Magazine Top 20 Tool Awards

I had a chance this weekend to look at the September 2009 Motor Magazine. I look forward to this issue every year for one reason, the Top 20 Tool Awards.

Congratulations to everyone that one. The usuals were there, SP Tools/Schley, SPX, and Snap-0n. Both SPX (OTC and Robinair) and Snap-on won two awards. I think every award was warranted. I am not sure how well the Envirolift from Challenger Lifts will sell (outside of government markets), but some of the others looked like must haves.

My favorite?
Gear Wrench Double X Snap Ring Pliers

WORX Grass Trimmer

I have a pretty big yard (1 acre). It takes me about 30 minutes a week to do the edging, trimming, etc. My Homelite gas powered weed wacker is on it's last legs so I thought I would borrow the WORX GT Grass Trimmer.

WORX GT

I have seen it on TV a few times and thought it would work for me. I used it over the weekend. I was not satisfied with it. I am a heavy duty user though. For the average home owner, I think it would be fine.

It is very light, easy to use and it does a great job when used as an edger. Unfortunately, to me, it is underpowered. It simply does not trim in a wide enough path and fast enough for the amount of work I have to do in my yard. Further, to me, it is too short. I would prefer it to be about 8 inches longer. That way you can reach further under evergreen trees and be further away as grass is shooting in all directions.

Perhaps if it was a 24v and had a more powerful motor (which would make it a lot heavier), it would better suit someone like me who has a lot of work to do and wants to get it done quickly.

This is what I am thinking of buying:

RYOBI GRASS TRIMMER

I will let you know how it works out....

Summer is Over, are you ready for Winter

Labor Day is over and it is time for those of us who live up North to get our cars and homes ready for winter. I ran across something that makes sense to me. It is called Battery Alert. Here it is:

http://www.deepdiscountdirect.com/catalog.asp?prodid=571283&showprevnext=1

You take this device and attach it to your car's battery. Everytime you start the car, it runs a quick diagnostic test to see if your battery is going to fail and not allow you to start. It will alert you (buzzing sound) long before the battery will not start.

I am going to get one and put it on my wife's car before the month is over. Since there is a lot of talk about Global Warming coming from DC, I am sure we are in for a very cold Winter.

Q2 Results at the big box stores

Home Depot and Lowes reported their Q2 results. They were not good. Both seem to be struggling with the huge pull-back in large ticket homeowner renovations. I read one press release (I believe from HD) that they do not expect this business to come back until mid 2010.

I have also heard from tool buyers at other retailers that power tool sales are off. This is from buyers all over North America.

I wonder how the Christmas season will be? It certainly is not promising.