What's with the Bus?

• Travel The Old Fashion Way
• Going To The Customer
• Mobile Hospitality
• Seeking Out New Suppliers & Artisans
• Life On-The-Road

It is difficult to miss our business coach when visiting Wilcorp, because it is 45 feet long, 13 feet high and parked smack dab in the middle of a showroom. No buildings for lease in our neck of the woods have the right
combination of high door access, re-enforced concrete floor and easy entry, otherwise Relais would be parked elsewhere.

In our quest to find new suppliers and unique quality home accents, lighting and ceiling fans; travel to manufacturing plants, trade shows, conferences, avant-garde  shopping venues, museums, art galleries, and new concept malls throughout Canada and the United States is a necessity.  Each year hundreds of trade shows and conventions are hosted in centers like McCormick Place in Chicago, IHFC in High Point, North Carolina, Dallas Market Center, World Market Center Las Vegas, Orlando and Atlanta.

Attending as many of these shows as possible is a necessity to keep the scope of product available at Wilcorp fresh, unique and worthy of your time to review. Establishing solid relationships with new and existing suppliers, artists, product designers, interior designers and customers takes time. Being able to arrive early or stay at a show longer and not have to catch a scheduled flight is a major advantage.

This is why our business coach was designed and built as a hybrid. The front half or salon, is a presentation suite with a 40” pop-up plasma, surround sound system, integrated asset server and seating for eight. The fully equipped galley can prepare everything from multiple course meals, early morning cappuccino and croissants, or just hors d'oeuvres and drinks for après show visitors. It helps to have your own hospitality suite on wheels and be able to go to the customer or supplier. I’ve become experienced at getting into parking lots small and large, setting up the snacks and coffee while booting up the presentations in just a few minutes. The folks I meet with are busy executives, designers and even home owners who appreciate the time saved and the effort we make to travel to them.

The back half of the coach houses the living quarters, bedroom, shower, bathroom and even laundry. My wife was particularly happy knowing that I can now do my own laundry.

You may be interested to know that billions of government dollars, ok, our dollars, have been spent in the last few years on infrastructure, which is just another way of saying more highways and bridges have been widened and resurfaced. But in the US, it also means interstate rest areas, which occur every fourty miles or so, have been enlarged, modernized and capable of handling many more travellers. President Eisenhower was instrumental in having the interstate highways system started in the 1950's which now totals more than 46,876 miles (75,440KM)-making it both the largest highway system in the world and the largest public works projects in history. Road trips to trade shows in Dallas or Las Vegas for example require multiple over-night stays in these rest areas. Thank you Dwight!

Life on the road is not as glamorous as some may think, but the rewards for attending so many distant venues can be evidenced by the range of unique product available to Wilcorp customers.

 

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