NASM INFLUX LIFTS GMDC ATTENDANCE

CHRISTINA VEIDERS

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. -- The General Merchandise Distributors Council GM Marketing Conference drew a record attendance that was aided in part by some members of the National Association of Service Merchandising testing GMDC's waters for future membership.

Preliminary figures showed this year's conference attendance up by about 10%, with 70 wholesaler/retailer and 279 general merchandise supplier/manufacturer companies registered. GMDC membership now stands at 63 wholesaler/retailer companies representing 138 buying locations, 234 health and beauty care suppliers and 325 general merchandise suppliers.

During the conference, the

GMDC board of directors extended Rick Tilton's contract as president through the year 2000. Said Tilton, "There are still so many challenges and opportunities within the industry, especially with our affiliation with NASM coming up. I am delighted I am going to be part of that transition and the changes going on now."

With the announced closing down of NASM, Ron Turner, GMDC's vice president of member affairs and education, said GMDC expects to recruit 25 to 30 new members. Both the executive staff of GMDC and executive committee members will be highly visible at the upcoming NASM Convention, Oct. 27 to 30, in Palm Springs, Calif. GMDC will have an information booth set up during the NASM meeting.

As NASM dissolves, it has pledged endowments to both GMDC and the American Wholesale Marketers Association. GMDC expects to receive an endowment of $250,000 over a 5-year period, to be used to fund Educational Foundation projects. Incoming GMDC chairman, Galen Itami, United Grocers, Portland, Ore., said one of his goals next year was "to help assimilate the service merchandisers into the organization and initiate a program that demonstrates GMDC is proactive and on the cutting edge of major issues."

Several NASM members who attended this year's conference for the first time voiced positive opinions about the meeting and commented on the major issues facing general merchandise business.

In comparing it to other conferences, Steven Wahl, executive vice president of Petco Marketing, Griffith, Ind., said the conference was "excellent and well organized. It was a whole new experience to have eight-minute sessions so compressed yet very productive. I now have an eight-minute attention span. Everyone was well prepared."

Wahl pointed to competition and category killers in taking market share away from supermarkets as the major issue in general merchandise today. "We can fight back against the category killers [in pet supplies] with variety of brands and the selection that is needed to keep customers satisfied with what they can buy conveniently at the supermarket," he added.

Said Lance Davies, vice president of Gene's Distributing, Phoenix, "The biggest thing that impressed me was how smoothly everything ran. The people running it were very professional."

Davies said the major issue in general merchandise was how supermarket retailers can compete with the mass market. "The biggest strategy right now is not losing the customer," he added.

Donald Polsi, director and category manager of general merchandise at Imperial Distributors, Auburn, Mass., said, "In all the years I've been buying it's the first time I've participated in tabletop discussions. I had over 200 meetings. There will be a lot of follow-up and if that happens it will be one of the better shows I've ever attended."