Shows or rip-offs?

You want to pick up some groceries - you go into Woolies remembering “The Fresh Food People”.

You need clothes or furnishings - in you go to a department store believing, “There’s no other store like David Jones”.

Businesses try to maintain customer attraction through positive brand awareness and trust.

But whether you shop at major stores, or are just visiting the suburban market, all of them have at least one thing in common; there is no charge to come in. If there was, nobody would shop there.

Yet venues such as themed shows and exhibitions, where the prime purpose of the displays is to attract potential customers, trick people into paying to enter. Why?

Advertising and promotional costs are a part of every business, therefore tax deductible. When funds are spent on radio and television, the consumer sees that advertising free of charge. Why not at marketing exhibitions?

Events promoters devise collective displays for themed goods, and sell exhibition space to clients in a similar way to the mass media. But they are double dipping. As well as covering costs, and making a profit by charging exhibitors for display areas, these promoters ask the gullible public to pay for admission as well.

I refuse to attend any product show which involves “fee-to-see”. After all, what does that admission purchase?

I have no problem with entry charges to legitimate entertainment such as concerts, cinemas, sporting events, air shows, and plays. In these, the performers give of their skills in return for money.

The Easter Show is similar, although it has taken a steady marketing shift from the days when it was a Royal Agricultural Show, primarily featuring agricultural produce and livestock, to today’s re-branded Royal Easter Show, focused more on entertainment, and saleable show bags for the masses.

There is at least one leisure venue in Sydney which makes no charge for admission - the iconic Luna Park. Entry is free to a place where one can enjoy, at no cost, the sights and sounds of others having fun and thrills. Visitors only pay for the rides. This venue has been a tradition for Sydney-siders for generations, particularly the young. As teenagers, my friends and I used to spend many a Saturday there at little or no cost.

Why should marketing exhibitions not be free also, and present goods and services in a favourable, themed environment where potential customers can be attracted to a style of product in which they have an interest, and if motivated, buy on the spot?