What We Learned
Selling 1,700 Bags at Our First Consumer Trade Show
The Salon de la Femme (National Women's Show Montreal 2026) at the Palais des congrès de Montréal — over 320 exhibitors, roughly 10,000 attendees, three days. We make Vietnamese tropical fruit snacks — Dried Mango, Jackfruit Chips, and Banana Chips. Getting them into the hands of 10,000 people over one weekend? Nothing simple about that.
We just finished our first direct-to-consumer trade show. We sold almost 1,700 bags. We ran out of product twice. And we learned more in three days than we did in months of planning.
Here's what nobody tells you about selling at a consumer show.
On Thursday — the day before the show — we loaded up 48 cases to make sure we were stocked and ready. We thought it was more than enough.
By Friday afternoon, our Jackfruit Chips were already sold out. We had to restock twice during the show
— Friday night (24 cases) and Saturday night (40 cases). That's over 110 cases moved across four days.
The rule? Whatever number you think you need — add 50%. Running out of your best seller on day one is the worst kind of good problem. You lose sales you can never get back.
And here's the real lesson: invest in your distributor relationship before you need it. Our distributor opened his warehouse on a Friday night and a Saturday night so we could restock. Not everyone will do that — but the good ones will. When things get real, those are the people who show up.
We used about 180 bags for sampling over three days, including 64 bags of dried mango cut by hand — at 9 PM every night after 10-hour shifts. We didn't finish until 11 PM. Every single night.
Exhausting? Absolutely. But sampling is what converts browsers into buyers. Most of our sales started with a free taste and someone saying "wow, what is this?"
The fix for next time: pre-cut all samples before the show. And budget your sampling inventory separately from sales inventory — we didn't fully account for how much we'd burn through.
We expected Dried Mango to be the runaway star. It was our top seller — but the surprise hit was Jackfruit Chips. Sold out Friday. Sold out again Sunday. One customer from Toronto bought 12 bags because he said he couldn't find jackfruit chips anywhere else.
A consumer show is live market research. You'll learn things in three days that surveys and analytics could never tell you. Pay attention to what gets the biggest reactions. That feedback is gold for marketing, retail pitches, and planning your next show.
STAFF MORE. DEFINE ROLES.
Friday we had three people. Saturday we had eight. Night and day difference.
With a small crew, you're constantly choosing between serving customers, restocking, handling payments, and offering samples. Something always suffers.
The fix: assign clear roles. Samples. Transactions. Restocking. Floating. When everyone is doing everything, nobody does anything particularly well. And staff your full crew from open to close — not just the afternoons.
HIRE A CONTENT PERSON
Probably our biggest regret. We captured some content — including footage of a live culinary demo where a team member made Nam Fruits Chocolate Bark in three varieties on stage. But the truly magical moments — customers' faces lighting up, the guy buying 12 bags, people returning the next day because their kids devoured a bag overnight — we missed most of those because the team was too busy selling.
Next time: one dedicated content creator. Their only job is to film, capture reactions, and do quick interviews. No booth duties. A single 30-second clip of a genuine reaction can outperform weeks of planned social media.
PEOPLE WILL ASK WHERE TO FIND YOU
The number one question after someone bought: "Where can I find this in stores?"
These aren't impulse buyers. These are people who want to find you again — at their local grocery store, on their regular shopping trip. For a brand trying to get onto more shelves, that real consumer demand is your most powerful selling tool when talking to retailers.
B2B LEADS WILL FIND YOU
We went to sell to consumers. We didn't expect store owners, a gas station operator, and a distributor to walk up asking how they could carry our products.
But retailers attend these shows too. They see which booths have lineups. Days after the show, one of those stores already called asking for pricing. Keep business cards and a wholesale one-pager ready — you never know who's walking by.
THE SHOW DOESN'T END WHEN THE SHOW ENDS
Monday morning: two full vehicles of equipment to unload, follow-up emails to B2B leads, in-store tastings to prep for the next weekend, content to sort, social media recaps to post.
Block the Monday after.
Don't schedule anything else. You'll need it.
IT'S WORTH IT. JUST GO IN READY.
Consumer trade shows are exhausting. Long days. Late nights. Heavy lifting. But here's what one weekend gave us:
For perspective: a good in-store tasting day, we sell about 100 bags. This weekend was the equivalent of
17 tastings in three days.
The exposure alone — your brand in front of 10,000 people is worth the investment. But only if you go in prepared.
OUR CHECKLIST FOR NEXT TIME