View full sizeShoppers streamed into the 52nd annual Portland Metro Dealers RV Show on Friday, the third day of the five-day exhibition. “People disappeared last year because discretionary income dried up,” says Jack Phelps, general manager of Olinger Travel Homes, which is selling rigs at the show. “But they’re more optimistic this year and younger families are getting back out there into the RV market.” Two days into the annual Portland Metro Dealers RV Show, Curtis Trailers typically would have sold around 18 trailers.
This year, amid gas woes and a recession, the Portland company doubled that figure, sending 20 out the door on the first day alone.
Shirley Wilkerson was among the crowds at the Portland Expo Center, and she and her husband helped Curtis Trailers tick off another sale Friday.
Michael LLoyd, The Oregonian Jim Snoozy of Curtis Trailers had sold 38 trailers in the first two days of the RV show at the Portland Expo Center. Recent attendance and sales surges at other events, such as national RV, boat and motorcycle shows, have retailers at the Portland exhibition preparing for more activity this weekend. Sitting in the 33-foot, fifth-wheel trailer the Vancouver couple snapped up for around $40,000, Wilkerson admitted she felt a little guilty making such a big purchase.
“So many people are out of work and the economy is so bad,” said Wilkerson, who’d just made friends with another couple buying the same model at the show. “But we had made this plan, and we’ve been working for this goal.”
The Wilkersons aren’t alone.
National sales figures released Friday show U.S. …
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