Samantha Taylor:
Welcome to the Amigo CartCast, the podcast where we roll through the ins and outs of material handling with Amigo carts. I’m your host, Samantha Taylor, here with my co-host Scott Chappell, and we’re on a mission to find a better way for material handling.

Scott Chappell:
Thank you, Samantha. Each episode will explore the innovative features, success stories, and the endless possibilities that Amigo material handling carts bring to the table. Let’s roll into a world of efficiency, innovation, and endless possibilities. This is the Amigo CartCast.

Samantha Taylor:
Welcome to another episode of the Amigo CartCast. We’ve been on a little bit of a summer break enjoying this beautiful Michigan weather. But we are back in action. And a lot of exciting things to talk about. I have Scott here with me today. Scott, how’s your summer been?

Scott Chappell:
It’s vacation season.

Samantha Taylor:
It is!

Scott Chappell:
Yes, it is.

Samantha Taylor:
If you haven’t had a chance to enjoy a Michigan summer, I highly recommend that to all of our listeners.

Scott Chappell:
Do they know that we have lakes up here called the Great Lakes?

Samantha Taylor:
H.O.M.E.S. Isn’t that what they teach you in elementary school? It’s the only way I remember.

Scott Chappell:
All I can tell you folks listening is we have a lot of water, a lot of water.

Samantha Taylor:
A lot of water, some beaches and boats.

Scott Chappell:
Beautiful.

Samantha Taylor:
Jet skis, whatever you like to do.

Scott Chappell:
That’s correct.

Samantha Taylor:
All right. With all the hype of summer, summer break, we are in full swing of showing our Amigo products.

Scott Chappell:
Most definitely.

Samantha Taylor:
So we would like to challenge everybody to catch us if you can. We have a lot going on with our products, and we want to share with our listeners how they’re able to see us in action.

Scott Chappell:
What a theme. And you know, the reason you mention that is because it’s a product that needs to be seen.

Samantha Taylor:
Absolutely. So, Scott, why don’t you go ahead and share, what’s your favorite way for our listeners to be able to see our product?

Scott Chappell:
Well, what’s funny is, you know, I’m a big road show advocate. I really enjoy getting in the van with our manufacturer rep or our local dealer and taking our products, going into the parking lot, unloading the products, taking them inside if a customer wants us to, we give a 15 to 25-minute demonstration. There’s all kinds of questions.

People all of a sudden look at these and go, we can use it here, we can use it there. And then we load up and go on to the next one. But there are many other ways you can see us. And one of them, Samantha, would be trade shows.

Samantha Taylor:
Oh, we’ve done a little mention of trade shows. I know with some of our dealers and John Oliviera when we had our manufacturer rep on board, that’s how we got in contact with them. So trade shows are a great way to see our product. And we have a couple coming up on the books for later this year and into next year.

Scott Chappell:
Some of our most popular trade shows we go to every year are ProMat, which is in Chicago, Illinois, and then the opposite year is going to be Modex, which is in Atlanta, Georgia. Those are the two biggest material handling trade shows, but it just doesn’t stop there because our products can be used for picking and packing. It can be shipping, receiving, maintenance—you name it. It can be trash, garbage movement, and safety as well. Aren’t you doing a safety show later this year?

Samantha Taylor:
Yeah. So that one’s coming up in Orlando.

Scott Chappell:
Perfect.

Samantha Taylor:
Yes.

Scott Chappell:
And that’s going to be our first. So everybody knows that’s our first-ever safety show. We’ve done the material handling shows before, like I said, ProMat and Modex. But safety, this is our first maiden voyage on a safety show. So, the unique thing about the shows we visit today is even though it’s a safety show or a material handling show, we’ve also done shows at Fab Tech, which is a manufacturing show, and at Pack Expo, which is a packaging show.

Now, you might say to yourself, why would you take your products to a packaging show, and why would we, Samantha?

Samantha Taylor:
Well, I think based on customer feedback, we have a lot of individuals moving small packages or midsize packages throughout their facility.

Scott Chappell:
Well, most definitely, that’s exactly what it is.

Samantha Taylor:
Is that what you were thinking?

Scott Chappell:
What I was looking for. But what’s funny is when you go to these shows, it’s amazing the number of people that stop because they see it. Maybe it’s the black and yellow—that’s our color theme—or maybe it’s the black and yellow products, or maybe it’s so unique that they wonder how they can use it, whether it’s packaging, moving packages, or moving packaging material.

So that’s at a packaging show. Manufacturing show was Fab Tech. And everybody’s always building things and moving things. So when it comes to the safety show, this is going to be kind of new for us, which we’re always into new—we’re kind of trendsetters here—but it’s going to be new for us to see what kind of response we get from the folks that are looking to move somebody around safer in their facility.

Samantha Taylor:
And that one was kind of cool because we are trying to, you know, look at things differently. But also that’s based on feedback that we’ve heard. It’s like we always have safety people involved. And they’re like, this product is great. It’s very safe. It meets safe speeds. You have safety features like the blue light and strobe light.

Absolutely. It works in our establishments. So we’re like, a safety show makes sense. Let’s do it.

Scott Chappell:
Most definitely. And I’m excited because since we started the line in ‘17, this is the first one we’ve done. So I’ll be curious to see the kind of results that we receive from that. You know, we also have done some regional shows. So here we’re talking about these national shows—Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta.

But there’s a lot of local regional shows that we can go to as well. And that could be a maintenance show. That could be a—I don’t want to say it’s a throughput show—an inventory control show.

Samantha Taylor:
I was going to say that we do a lot of open house styles for local material handling dealers. Even here at Amigo, we’re going to be having an open house later this month where we invite people to come see our products and get to know the people behind the products, kind of showcase a little bit of that.

Scott Chappell:
Oh yeah, that’s exciting as well. But we’ve also done some—did we do a show that was designed around, was it around fish? Yeah. The show out west.

Samantha Taylor:
That came from the Far West Show.

Scott Chappell:
Okay. All right.

Samantha Taylor:
Right? Which was specifically for nurseries.

Scott Chappell:
That’s it. You’re right. Nurseries.

Samantha Taylor:
Which we’re doing again this year, coming up at the end of this month. Right. And oh my goodness, it’s August already.

Scott Chappell:
And that’s a regional show.

Samantha Taylor:
Yep.

Scott Chappell:
And that not only brought us nursery information, but it did—you’re right. It gave us a gentleman in Iowa that actually raises fish.

Samantha Taylor:
Koi.

Scott Chappell:
Koi, koi fish farm. He actually raises fish. And believe it or not, they bought our product to move some of the—because I talked to him on the phone personally—fish food easier.

Samantha Taylor:
So is that like the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream? Fish food? Isn’t there Ben and Jerry’s? No.

Scott Chappell:
Okay, I don’t know about that. But like I said, the local shows—safety, nursery show. We’re up. And if anybody has any shows, whether you’re an actual customer or if you’re a dealer that you think we should exhibit at, just let us know because we’re always up for another way to show our products.

Samantha Taylor:
Absolutely. Trade shows are fun. It’s great to meet new people. It’s very low-key. Come stop by, see our product. But you mentioned earlier the Amigo Roadshow, which I know, of course, is your favorite thing to talk about. So we’re not going to spend all day, but you talked about how you enjoy getting in the van and getting our product out to show people. Why don’t you expand on that a little bit and how people are able to see our product through the Amigo Roadshow?

Scott Chappell:
So that can happen in a couple of different ways. Sometimes people reach out to us and say, “Hey, we’d love to have you stop by and show your products to us.” Another way that we do that is through our local dealer because our local dealers are the folks that have… they know what their customers… take that back. They know their customers and they know their wants and needs. What’s kind of unique about our product is if a local dealer really wanted to see their existing customers again, they might go, “Hey, I got a product to show you.” And that product is the Amigo material handling carts. Because honestly, I can just about guarantee it—nobody has seen it because it is that unique. So with our dealers, they will set up their own demonstrations, and then the roadshow, we join forces with them, we visit their customer with them.

The other side of that, though, with dealers, local dealers, is they do have open houses, kind of like we’re going to have ours coming up. They have open houses mostly yearly, where they bring everybody in, and they have a bunch of vendors that show the different products.

Samantha Taylor:
So what is a way that if someone is interested in the Amigo Roadshow, how would you suggest they get in contact?

Scott Chappell:
So I’ve been told we’ve got a nice landing site on our website. I think you probably know what that is.

Samantha Taylor:
Yep. You can go to myamigo.com/demo and put in a request. That way, we will let you know when the roadshow is coming your way.

Scott Chappell:
So that’s one way we could do that. The other way is they can contact our local dealer, and then when they talk to their dealer, we can also set up a week to come out, and we can show as many people as possible that week all the products. And the really cool thing about it is that it’s so easy and simple and no pressure whatsoever. We show up, we unload the product, we answer questions, we load up, and we go again and we go again.

Samantha Taylor:
Do a little song and dance.

Scott Chappell:
Do a little song and dance. Yes.

Samantha Taylor:
Great. I would like to see that.

Scott Chappell:
I’m not dancing as much as I used to.

Samantha Taylor:
We’ll make something happen. So, Scott, you shared that we have an internal open house coming later this month. We’re very excited. This is the first time we have offered this at our headquarters and the manufacturing site specifically for our material handling carts. So we’re really excited. We are offering it through the Great Lakes Bay Manufacturing Association. We’re partnering with them. They’ve been a great partner and resource for us throughout the years. And so we’re opening up our doors to all local manufacturers in Michigan to come see our facility and also show our material handling carts. Are you able to provide a little more information in case our listeners are interested in joining?

Scott Chappell:
I am. So we’ve focused historically in the past seven years on getting out to show people. But we have a beautiful facility here, and we show all of our products here. So this is a great way to get a lot of people in the local community within the state of Michigan to come and see our products, besides our building, besides our people, which we all love. And besides being in the middle of a little cornfield, it gives them a way to come and see everything here.

And sometimes, you know, our R&D folks have products sitting around; sometimes engineering has projects sitting around. And at that point in time…

Samantha Taylor:
We ask you to turn off your cell phones because it’s highly secretive.

Scott Chappell:
Oh my gosh.

Samantha Taylor:
We’re not that type of place.

Scott Chappell:
I mean, my gosh, I mean, we need a fingerprint. Yeah. You can leave your phone at the desk. We need to check and make sure your temperature’s good because during Covid, you couldn’t be over 101.5 or whatever it was.

Samantha Taylor:
Hundred one? I hope you’re staying home at 101.

Scott Chappell:
But I will tell you, this is our first ever on-site mini trade show, we’ll call it. What’s it called, Samantha?

Samantha Taylor:
So we’re tagging it as Beer & Brats. We’re going to have, of course, a little cookout, offer some bratwurst, and adult beverages.

Scott Chappell:
And the bratwurst are from Frankenmuth, Michigan, which is world-famous. Most definitely they are. So it’s going to be a great time. Like I say, getting people here, seeing our facility. The other side of it is it’s open to everybody. Is that right?

Samantha Taylor:
Correct.

Scott Chappell:
Okay. So it could be a customer interested, or it could be a local dealer that’s interested just to kind of get to know us better.

Samantha Taylor:
So many great things are happening at Amigo, specifically with our material handling line. We really hope that if someone has interest, they visit either myamigo.com/industrial or to schedule that demo go to myamigo.com/demo. I hope that you can catch us if you can, because we are busy this time of year.

Scott Chappell:
I will just say this. The satisfaction I receive is when we show products, and then all of a sudden, the light bulb comes on for whoever you’re showing it to, and they go, “Oh my gosh, we can decrease this amount of steps. We can improve this kind of efficiency. We can move more boxes than we used to.”

And it’s those kinds of stories. We’ve had a lot of successful stories, just like the gentleman with the fish food, the koi company in Iowa. I mean, it was a situation where he’s moving fish food. Really? But it’s a big deal to him. So, you know what? That’s the cool thing about all this—we’re able to find the big deals for these customers. And trade shows are a great way, dealers are a great way, and our Amigo Roadshow is a great way.

Samantha Taylor:
Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing.

Scott Chappell:
You’re welcome.

Samantha Taylor:
Until next time.

Scott Chappell:
Is this that cue?

Samantha Taylor:
This is it.

Scott Chappell:
Already? Keep it rolling.

Samantha Taylor:
And that wraps up another episode of the Amigo CartCast. We hope you enjoyed this exploration into finding a better way for material handling with Amigo carts. Be sure to subscribe, as well as go to myamigo.com/podcast to see pictures and videos mentioned in today’s episode.

Scott Chappell:
Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, keep rolling with Amigo.

Samantha Taylor:
Until next time.

Scott Chappell:
Keep it rolling.

Samantha Taylor:
Keep It Rolling.