The annual recreational vehicle show held at Pomona’s Fairplex is among the largest in the world. However, the selection of the pocketbook-friendly smaller, lighter and more economical RVs is gradually shrinking. Despite the shredded national economy, small manufacturers cannot hang on against larger companies that crank out huge vehicles with enormous profit margins. Especially in a “down” economy, wealthier folks wanting large RVs tend to have money left over for such indulgences while the fiscal reserves of many average recreational campers continue shrinking.
Since the overall size of the RV shows contracts with each passing year, the quandary is how to bring in more new potential buyers.
Unexpectedly, I spied this display, doubtless intended to gain attention and thereby assist the RV market turn the corner towards recovery. Be-speckled and be-nippled, this Halloween-inspired gorilla ballerina contraption beckoned me, clumsily lurching to and fro, apparently powered by erratic hidden robotic servomotors. (The sight of it was enough to make me look for the exit, but I hadn’t yet visited the Airstream RV exhibit.)
What inspired this crackpot contraption? Maybe it was an artist’s conception of the perfect customer who would be looking to purchase that “gotta have it” gargantuan-sized RV – the biggest, baddest, most ostentatious RV at the show. Or perhaps it was, in fact, a bankrupt salesman of small and sensible RVs from a previous year’s show, who had finally run out of his 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, donned a lime green tutu and a leopard-print Cat Woman mask, stuffed himself into a gorilla suit, and was now working for tips.