I feel the RHS have definitely shot themselves in the foot with the imposition of a £5.00 surcharge for members to attend the show. I went at about 3pm on the first day; to say it was empty is putting it mildly: the stands had been spaced very widely apart which argues they did not have a lot of trade support and at least 10 stands in the Old Hall were selling ‘stuff’ that had very little relevance to horticulture – scarves/soap/pictures.
I spoke to a couple of stall holders who were distinctly unhappy about the footfall. Also unhappy about the Monday evening opening which meant they had to have everything ready by 6pm rather than being able to arrange their stall peacefully for normal Tuesday opening. They could see no rationale for this opening
It turns out that horticultural stands do not have to pay to attend the RHS show, but when I suggested that in future they should boycott the London shows if this £5.00 surcharge continues to be applied, they explained that if they did that, then they would find they were not ‘invited’ to attend other more important shows such as the ones at RHS Wisley. They still have the expense of congestion charge/parking fees/accommodation and food costs. One was very unhappy having popped up to grab a cup of tea at the stall on the upper level to find that as it was a Vegan restaurant they only had soya milk
Sundry stalls such as Labels n Things – which we buy from – are charged £100 to participate – you have to sell a lot of labels before you start to make a profit
One stall holder came up with what I thought was an inspired idea – add £1.00 to every Chelsea Flower Show ticket and put the money in a Trust Fund specifically to fund their charitable aims such as helping to pay for RHS Apprentices, to kick-start and enable young people’s careers in horticulture. As the Chelsea Show has an attendance of 157,000 this would not only have solved the problem of raising funds without upsetting RHS members but also generated much more money. I wonder if they publish attendance at the London Shows – it would be very interesting to see how many visited this one.
Not only did we have to pay and extra £5.00 but the normal list of exhibitors giving their addresses and specialities is no longer provided, just a one page A4 with an alphabetical list of who is attending
I was so grumpy that I was tempted by a snowdrop of the same name until I saw the price tag – £17.50!! which made me even grumpier. This was by no means the most expensive – I saw some at £50 for a single bulb!
It’s unfortunate when an organisation’s short-term greed/desperation makes them long-term stupid: this looks like a typical example. The government’s dramatic increases in Stamp Duty for property is another good example: instead of raising more money, it’s actually reduced the amount HMRC now receive because people are now less likely to move house.
Of course, the outrageous 9,200% increase in Probate Fees (from a flat £215 to a % up to £20,000) ISN’T an equivalent example: we can’t stop ourselves from dying!