Buying / selling construction equipment is apparently a job for overweight, middle-aged, white guys
March 17, 2008So last week when I was in Vegas, there were of course a number of conventions in town. But by far the largest was Conexpo-Con/Agg, a construction equipment convention.
You could tell who the attendees were because they all wore their badges even when they were on the casino floor instead of at the convention. Plus many of them were carrying a black canvas bag with the Volvo logo, at least the first day of the convention. I’m guessing Volvo handed out over 100,000 of those bags, one to each and every attendee.
The other distinguishing feature was that the vast majority of the attendees were overweight, middle-aged white guys (OMAWG). I saw maybe a dozen women sprinkled in the mix, couple hispanic men, and that was it. Everybody else fit the OMAWG stereotype. I haven’t seen a population that skewed towards white folks since I lived in New Hampshire.
I wonder what it is about that industry that attracts them? I’m thinking as little boys they all played with Tonka trucks, and ever since then wanted to keep playing with ever bigger and more expensive toy trucks.
As to why so many were overweight, that’s pretty easy as well. When they were younger they probably worked construction, and got used to eating in a way that was appropriate for somebody doing heavy physical labor. Problem is when they moved into office work, they kept eating that way. So they’re now all OMAWG’s.