Behind the Booth:
1,700 Bags, 3 Days, and One Unforgettable Weekend at Salon de la Femme Montreal 2026
1,700 bags. Three days. Zero regrets.
Our Jackfruit Chips sold out twice. Our Banana Chips sold out on Saturday. And our team was cutting dried mango by hand at 11 PM after 10-hour shifts.
This is what it really looks like behind the booth at one of Montreal's biggest consumer shows.
The Salon de la Femme — also known as the National Women's Show Montreal — is one of Canada's largest consumer events, held at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. The 2026 edition ran March 27–29, with over 320 exhibitors and roughly 10,000 attendees over the weekend.
For Nam Fruits, it was our very first direct-to-consumer trade show — and it exceeded every expectation
we had.
A trade show doesn't start when the doors open. It starts weeks before — with our team in Vietnam creating social media campaigns, event graphics, and countdown content to build buzz. Meanwhile in Montreal, it was full logistics mode: inventory planning, booth design, staffing, signage, point-of-sale systems, sampling supplies, and a mountain of behind-the-scenes administration.
The day before the show, our truck made two full trips to the warehouse — it only fits 24 cases — to load up 48 cases of product. We figured that would be plenty for the weekend.
Spoiler: it wasn't even close.
We opened with a small crew and a lot of energy. Ten hours on our feet, thousands of people walking the floor. The response was instant — people tasted our products, walked away, then came right back to buy. Not one bag. Three, four at a time.
Our Jackfruit Chips sold out by mid-afternoon. On day one.
When the show closed at 7 PM, most exhibitors called it a night. We drove to our distributor's warehouse to pick up 24 more cases. Then home — where the real fun began.
By 9 PM, some of us was cutting dried mango for the next day's samples. We finished around 11 PM. After a 10-hour day on our feet. This would become a nightly routine.
DAY 1 — FRIDAY (9 AM – 7 PM)
DAY 2 — SATURDAY (9 AM – 6 PM)
Saturday was a full sprint from open to close. A bigger crew, a packed booth, and a crowd that never seemed to slow down. We burned through almost 80 bags of samples and the reactions were incredible.
By end of day? Jackfruit Chips and Banana Chips — both completely sold out. Again.
One of the highlights: a member of our team took the stage at the show's Culinary Food Show for a live demonstration — creating Nam Fruits Chocolate Bark in three varieties: chocolate mango coconut bark, chocolate bark with crispy banana chips, and chocolate bark with jackfruit chips. Made live on stage, in front of the crowd, and handed out for everyone to taste. Another teammate filmed the whole thing. A one-of-a-kind branding moment you can't buy.
After the show closed at 6 PM, we headed straight to the warehouse — filling both our vehicles with another 40 cases. A massive thank you to our distributor, who opened his doors on a Friday night and a Saturday night to make sure we had enough product to keep going. Not every partner does that. The good ones do.
Then — back home. More mango cutting. We didn't finish until 11 PM. Wake up early. Do it all again.
64 BAGS OF MANGO
Here's something people don't think about: at a show this size, you need a lot of product for sampling. Over the course of the weekend, we cut approximately 64 bags of dried mango by hand.
Now imagine doing that at 9 PM after working since the morning, then driving to a warehouse for more inventory. That was every single night. It's not glamorous. But when someone takes their first bite and their face says it all — every late-night cutting session is worth it.
DAY 3 — SUNDAY (9 AM – 4 PM)
Both vehicles were so packed with product there was literally no room for passengers. Part of the team took the metro to get to the Palais des congrès. Everyone met at 9 AM to unload, carry everything in, unpack, and set up the booth one final time.
The mission for the last day was simple: sell everything. Nobody wanted to haul cases back.
And the team delivered. Some of the best moments happened on Sunday — including customers who came back because they had bought a bag the day before, finished it at home that same night, and returned for more.
When the show ended at 4 PM, the real chaos started. Over 320 exhibitors all tearing down and trying to leave at the same time. Elevators packed, stairways jammed. We moved our stuff out one trolley load at a time, making multiple trips before finally getting everything loaded by 5 PM — then sat in the parking lot for another 30 minutes just trying to get out.
Close to 40 hours of work. A full work week in three days.
WHAT PEOPLE TOLD US
''Wow, I was literally looking for jackfruit chips and couldn't find them anywhere! I'm so happy I found them here!"
"These are seriously the best dried mangoes I have ever tasted!"
"Your banana chips are so light and easy to eat — not coated and covered in sugar like other banana chips."
"I bought a bag yesterday, brought it home, and my son devoured them and asked me where I got them from and asked me to get more today!"
BY THE NUMBERS
🥭 ~1,700 bags sold across all four products
🏆 Dried Mango 180g — top seller all weekend
🔥 Jackfruit Chips — sold out Friday and Sunday
🍌 Banana Chips — sold out Saturday
✂️ 64 bags of mango cut by hand for sampling
🚚 3 emergency restocks from the warehouse
THE BIGGER PICTURE
1,700 bags in three days is an incredible number. But the real value goes far beyond one weekend of sales.
It's the thousands of people who now know Nam Fruits. The first-time tasters who fell in love. The customers who came back the next day. The families who went home and told their friends about the tropical fruit snacks they discovered at the Salon de la Femme.
Every one of those people is someone who will look for our products the next time they walk through a snack aisle. That's how a brand grows — not from a boardroom, but from a booth, one taste at a time.
COME FIND US NEXT
This was our first consumer trade show — and it won't be our last.
Next up: Eat Well Live Well in Toronto — April 18–19, 2026. If you're in the area, come find us, taste the products, and meet the team.
Can't make it?
🛒 Shop online: [shop.namfruits.com](https://shop.namfruits.com)
📍 Find a store: [namfruits.com/where-to-buy](https://www.namfruits.com/where-to-buy)
📱 Follow us: [@namfruits](https://www.instagram.com/namfruits) on Instagram