Retail/Trade Stalls at Airshows

OK,

there is almost always a lot of comment lamenting the lack of aviation-related retailers/traders in the stall-line at airshows,and I’ll not deny I miss them as much as anybody else does,but….

1) I don’t think(though could be wrong) there are so many aviation-related retailers out there today as there were 10-20-30 years ago

2) retailers/traders provide a very substantial and vital revenue stream for any event and bearing in mind issue 1),surely any show is not going to say “No” to this source of income no matter where it comes from

3) retailers/traders(both non- and the remaining few aviation related) must feel it’s worth their while to attend these events as otherwise they wouldn’t invest their time and costs(pitch fee,staffing,transport,accomodation etc) in order to attend…in fact I spoke to one of the non-aviation retailers at RIAT(The Little Goat Soap Company who also attend Abingdon Air & Country Show) and apparently it’s not just about what they sell at the event itself(as welcome as that is) but creating brand awareness leading to follow-on business through their website or bricks-&-mortar outlet at some future date(difficult to quantify,but makes sense to me..& certainly what I’d be looking at if I was a retailer/trader)

Not a rant as such,but just looking at things from a different perspective