November 2014

Craig Mongeau - November 2014

Thank you to all who attended and exhibited at last month’s N.Y.S. Highway & Public Works Expo.

Exhibitor numbers were up and attendance was strong with more than 1,100 guests who made their way to the Americraft Center of Progress building in Syracuse — proof that the brick and mortar way of buying and selling merchandise still works, and will continue to work. In fact, Amazon, the dominator of Web-based selling, is banking on just that. Several recent reports are saying that the Internet giant will open, of all things, a physical store in New York City by the upcoming holiday season.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, knows that despite the vast wealth he’s created for himself and his company, e-commerce has its limits. He knows that for big-ticket items like computers and flat screen televisions, many people, both young and old, do not always want something delivered to their front door without ever having had the chance to try it out, see it work, or have questions answered by salespeople at the point of purchase. And it’s not only the big expensive stuff that people want to buy in person. Sometimes folks just want to know that when they’ve bought something, they can get it now and not wait anxiously for it to show up at their doorstep by a certain time, which doesn’t always happen as some of us have learned the hard way when we’ve bought something for Christmas and it’s not shown up on time.

Highway department and construction equipment can, of course, be bought online and that option should be available — but so should traditional brick and mortar equipment shopping and we at Superintendent’s Profile plan on bringing this face-to-face buying experience to you for many years to come. Thank you again for exhibiting at and attending the expo. The weather cooperated, which made it nice to get outside and shop, at least a little farther than your front door.