Holiday Food & Beverage Show

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Holiday Food & Beverage Show

22nd Annual Holiday Food & Beverage Buying Show

September 22, 2020 | 2-9pm

As Michigan’s premiere holiday show, retailers and on- and off-premise licensees come from miles away to see, sample and buy! You must be a member to exhibit in this show.

Must be 21 years old to attend this show.

Why should you exhibit?

The buying shows offer your company the opportunity to meet and sell to thousands of buyers in 7 hours. We attract more retailers than any other holiday show in the State of Michigan, and they will be coming to YOUR booth!

Who attends our Buying Shows?

The buying shows are attended by industry leaders, buyers and retailers from: Convenience Stores, Grocery Stores, Liquor Stores, Drug Stores, Gas/Service Stations and Bars/Restaurants.

To see and hear first hand from past exhibitors and retailers attending our show, visit our YouTube channel at www. youtube.com/MIRAtube.

If you are interested in the 2021 event, please call 1-800-666-6233.
Event coordinators: Ricki Wines, rwines@miramw.org and Andrea Hesano, ahesano@miramw.org.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Member retailers will be mailed free tickets approximately two weeks before the show.
TICKET REQUIRED or you will be charged $50 at the door. Ask your suppliers for tickets as well, all exhibitors in the show have tickets for their customers.
No bags are allowed in or out.
Proper attire, please.
The law demands that you be at least 21 years of age to attend this show.

2019 RECAP: 21st Annual Holiday Food & Beverage Buying Show

The 21st Annual Holiday Food & Beverage show attracted nearly 1,000 attendees who came out to sample, see and purchase products for the Holiday season. There were 113 booths however, Republic National Distribution Company (RNDC) and MIRA’s own Benchmark each had well more than 50 vendors participate.

In addition to 18 new vendors, the event had several celebrity sightings including NBA Champions and Detroit Bad Boys Isiah “Zeke” Thomas, James “Buddha” Edwards and Mark “Silk” Aguirre representing their own Cheurlin Champagne. Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns made a knock out appearance stopping by several booths.

You can watch videos and see photos from the event on the MIRA Facebook page.

The show featured more of an open floor plan from previous years, with wider aisle. Attendees also munched on Coney dogs from the National Coney Island cart set up the back of the showroom at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi.

“The feedback was quite positive,” said Kristine Zrinyi Event Coordinator, “but we will not have the show on a Monday again. That is a day of the week that doesn’t work for attendees and vendors. There are too many conflicts. We are looking into another day of the week.”

MIRA hosts the largest liquor show in the state. “We were excited to have celebrities make an appearance,” said Zrinyi “We are talking about bringing them back for the April Show.”

Although all vendors had current and potential customers inquiring about products, the Cheurlin champs definitely attracted a crowd. “Isiah and his team were so engaged and had an active presence at the show,” said Auday Arabo, president and CEO. “They are also selling a great tasting champagne.

2019 PHOTOS

This industry is in my blood, and I want to serve it to give back what it has brought me.”

“I learned the business from others who were successful and being on the board gives me a chance to communicate how to better serve the industry—as well as make more money—to those who don’t yet know how. It’s important to hand our knowledge over to those who are new or are taking over a family business. We need to ask them what their most important issues are and help them understand the return on investment they can realize through MIRA’s programs, which save them money through better group pricing on everything they buy and all of their business expenses.” “If people know what MIRA is fighting for, they will want to be part of it. And if we work together, we can raise our industry to the next level.

Jim Garmo
Shoppers Valley Market
Cardwell says the Ohio CAT tax is the biggest issue facing gasoline retailers. “This tax must be moved to the rack to create an even playing field,” “I credit MIRA with working tirelessly to make state government aware of this issue.

Clarence Cardwell
IGA Express Stores
There are a lot of cynics out there that say MIRA doesn’t do much for the average member, and I’m here to tell them that they do. I am on the inside, I know what they do. People don’t realize what goes on behind the scenes, so I tell a lot of people about the work MIRA is doing and what a fantastic job Auday Arabo is doing as President & CEO.

Clifton Denha
Wine Palace, Livonia MI
We get better deals thanks to MIRA. We get the rebates with the coupons, and we can send them directly to them instead of sending to each manufacturer. It’s easy to send them to one place, and that is it. That really helps us save a lot of time. They also help us with the Dairymens Milk Company, and we get the special price, too. That is very nice.

Mario Shoman
Hayden Food Plus
MIRA did a great job on the food stamp initiative in 2010, and I’m grateful for that. However, we’re not done, and more than the next couple of years, I want to see payments released to food stamp recipients bimonthly.”

“As one strong voice, we can support initiatives that will enable us to compete with national chains such as Walmart, Kroger, and 7-Eleven or fight legislation that will hurt us.

Bobby Hesano
D&B Grocers Wholesale, Livonia MI
I volunteer because the association helps shape the direction of the industry and also benefits my business.”

“We should continue to educate our members on the benefits of membership so that they take advantage of our programs. We are all small business owners with common goals and we all compete against the bigger businesses. Binding together in MIRA makes us more competitive against them.

Jerry Crete
Ideal Party Store, Bay City MI