RV Weekly

By Nikki Becker

In a recent trip to Elkhart visiting various industry suppliers, manufacturers, and dealers I learned many things and had a few observations. First, as we all know Elkhart has been featured in the mass media many times with in the last year with both good and bad coverage. Due to the bad coverage I learned that some dealers are having more trouble getting customers and sales due to the media stating “Elkhart is dead.” They feel customers who once traveled to the “RV capital of the world” are now going elsewhere to make their purchases.

This statement leads me to my next observation. I didn’t see Elkhart as “dead.” Manufacturers are bringing back laid off workers, manufacturing plants are getting back to full production, and I saw many vehicles moving by local transportation companies which I can only assume are going to a dealer’s lot.

Finally, I noticed there was a “Made in America” theme at many of the companies I visited. Suppliers’ products, both to the aftermarket and to the manufacturers, shared this common theme and one manufacturer in particular took it a step further by endorsing products as “Made in Elkhart.”

I am hearing “Made in America” more and more in the RV industry and now “Made in Elkhart.” As a dealer and/or manufacturer in this industry, is this important to you? Will this influence you to purchase one product which is “Made in America” versus another which is made overseas? Is this a sales tool for you to perceive value to your customers? Do you see this as doing your part to help stimulate the U.S. and even Elkhart’s economy? Let’s hear your thoughts.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Guest Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.