What is Marketplace?
 “Anyone not attending Marketplace is severely challenged to meet the demands of their job and to provide a competitive advantage for their company. The person seeking success goes to Marketplace.” — Mark Griffin, Lewis Drug Stores
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Retail Outlets Represented at Marketplace 2006 
Exhibiting Companies By Product Category  |
The NACDS Marketplace Conference is the largest and most powerful convergence of drug, food, mass, club, and value retailing in the United States, if not the world.
The epicenter for health and beauty aids (HBA) and general merchandise (GM) buying and selling, Marketplace represents more than 90 percent of the industry. Bringing together more than 200 retail companies representing over 130,000 stores with 700 manufacturing companies across 11 major categories, it represents over $500 billion in annual buying power. In a phrase, Marketplace is the lifeblood of the industry.
This exhibit and appointment-based show is well attended by both retail and manufacturing senior management. Those involved include sales, marketing and merchandising executives, category managers, buyers, and the broker community. They are attracted to Marketplace because it is a one-stop shop.
Unlike smaller item focused category shows that don't showcase merchandise and tend to have fragmented participation, Marketplace brings together all products and services–category by category–under a half-mile-long roof. Here, retailers have the advantage of being able to compare products, programs, and pricing–providing exhibitors with a timely and efficient assessment of their impact in the marketplace. This is where new products debut and where merchandising trends take flight. This is where industry leaders make critical decisions!
The Industry's Best Show
NACDS is constantly striving to maintain Marketplace's position as the most efficient and effective show in the industry. NACDS works year round, preparing for each new Marketplace and studies participant feedback as well as industry, social, and business trends.
It applies its findings to assembling new tools and refining old ones to ensure successful and profitable Marketplace experiences for retailers and exhibitors alike—whether it be pre-scheduling appointments for firsttimers and providing special opportunities for those with new product introductions, bringing teen and baby boomer trend spotters to the conference, staging a pre-show teleconference, or crafting a mentoring program for new exhibitors. Marketplace is all about maximizing interactions between buyers and sellers.
The 2007 Marketplace focuses on two primary objectives
The best opportunities for finding new products and new vendors during the “Meet the Market” session;
Heightened success in pursuit of business-building initiatives and resolution of trade issues. This is also an opportunity to explore by category, in sit-down, face-to-face meetings, as well as to learn about new merchandising trends, line extensions, new packaging, and competitive opportunities. This is a manufacturer's time to display and present new products and a retailer's time to find the hottest new merchandise. It's a “can't miss” opportunity with virtually the entire category present.
Of course, serious business at Marketplace also includes social opportunities. Marketplace provides many informal venues for retailers and exhibitors to network, build alliances, and close deals. Everything about Marketplace is orchestrated to enhance each participant's business environment and opportunities. Marketplace is simply the most influential business meeting of the year for major retailers and exhibitors.