Summary: Tom Kraeutler hosts American Standard’s Pro Cast at the Aaron Plumbing Supply Trade Show featuring the latest plumbing innovations.
TOM: Welcome to the American Standard ProChampion ProCast. Hi, I’m Tom Kraeutler, coming to you from the floor of the Aaron & Company Contractor Expo, the largest event ever for contractors and plumbers in the state of New Jersey. American Standard has its ingenuity tour truck here to show plumbers and contractors the wide range of flushing systems that are available to deliver value and performance on the job. Barry Portnoy is the president of Aaron & Company, so you must feel a bit like the father of the bride today.
BARRY: I certainly do. I’m very proud, a proud father of the bride. Tremendous participation from our contractors, our vendor partners, our employers. It’s just an outstanding day and we’re very proud of our 75th anniversary and this event.
KEVIN: The company started out very small, an immigrant plumber, Isador Aaron sold plumbing supplies out of his basement 75 years ago, and now three generations later we’re still here, we’re thriving, and we wanted to put an event on that we could share with all of our customer base.
TOM: What brought you out to the show today?
BOB: Ah, Dan Holohan was the first reason that we’re here, plus the seminar specifically.
SPEAKER 5: Dan Holohan. Everyone in the industry knows him.
TOM: Now, your session is called 10 Dumb Things People Do with Hot Water?
DAN: Top 10.
TOM: Top 10. All right, give me a couple of them.
DAN: Sizing based on the finger method, where you hold up so many fingers and if you’re standing 60 feet across the street from the house, it covers the house, that’s a four [inaudible 01:28].
TOM: What brought you out to the show today?
SPEAKER 6: The availability of the new technology that’s here at the show that people can see and appreciate.
SPEAKER 7: Always looking for new technology. Everything new technology, high efficiency, and …
SPEAKER 8: I work for a plumbing contractor and I’m really interested in plumbing work. It really turns me on.
TOM: Well, okay then. Twenty four seminars going on here, including two by American Standard and one’s going to have kind a cool challenge in it where there’s cash prizes involved.
CAROL: Ready, set, go! We’re going to be giving away lots of cash. We have competitions. We want plumbers to install our new Speed Connect drain to see who can do it the fastest. We’re also going to being talking about a lot of our great product features.
TOM: There’s cash money involved?
CAROL: There’s cash money involved. Lots of cash.
TOM: Paul, Paul.
SPEAKER 9: Excellent.
TOM: The inspector says okay. Champion! What do you think of the American Standard products you saw today?
STEVE: Fantastic. I think they’re the best.
ED: I think American Standard’s a really good company. They’re there when I need ’em.
SPEAKER 10: I like their Cadet 3, that’s nice unit.
ED: I’ve put quite a few Champion toilets in. They had a couple of problems with Wonderflush mechanisms, and they seem to have improved the technology now.
JOYCE: We’re urging plumbers to come on in and sign up to the Pro Champion League Program to win triple reward points towards products. We have a newsletter that goes out to them every quarter detailing which products have triple reward points for that period.
TOM: Are you a plumber?
SPEAKER 11: Yes.
TOM: Can I ask you a couple of questions? All right. What do you think of the food here at the Aaron & Company Contractor Expo? How important is it for plumbers to stay on top of what the latest and the greatest is in this industry?
KEVIN: I know when I came into the industry about 15 years ago, there was pretty much vanilla and chocolate and now there’s a ton of flavors, and certainly the green aspect of product development is becoming increasingly important. We felt that it was important to put on 24 seminars today, just for the education, and to help drive attendance for the show for all of our vendors.
TOM: Where do you guys buy your plumbing materials, and why do you go there?
SPEAKER 12: We buy everything from Aaron’s because they have the best service and the best prices.
SPEAKER 6: Everything’s always in stock. and if they don’t have it, they can get it.
BOB: Aaron’s an excellent supplier. They provide us with a lot of HVAC background. We don’t do much in the plumbing, we’re strictly HVAC work, but they support us through a self-cleaning field facility and in Somerville.
ED: I use their showroom a lot. I send customers there to use their showroom, because they’re very helpful, and very knowledgeable.
SPEAKER 10: I deal with Flemington branch a lot; almost every day.
TOM: Do you have any experiences where you’ve been an action hero for a plumber, have you saved the day?
SPEAKER 6: Yeah, I’ve done that. I have credentials for that also.
SPEAKER 8: Do you know who he is? He is the original Tidy Bowl Man. He swoops to the rescue at all times.
TOM: Robbie, have you ever thought of yourself as an action hero?
ROBBIE: No.
TOM: Now, Steve, do you see yourself as an action hero?
STEVE: Sure. Absolutely.
TOM: Because I see a slight resemblance between you and the Mega Plumber Action Hero. What do you think?
STEVE: Ah, fantastic.
TOM: Our next seminar’s being put on by James Walsh from the Chinaware group. James, what are we going to learn today?
JAMES: What we’re going to do, is we’re going to highlight some of our newest technologies, from Champion 4 to Cadet 3, to our new [inaudible 05:04] Madera. What we wanted to do is make it fun, get it interactive, so we’re going to do a team relay race, and the team relay race is going to consist of passing a ball through a champion toilet, coupling a tank to a Cadet 3 bowl, and shooting toilet paper into a Madera bowl. The winning team is going to get some cash rewards, and the runner up team is going to get some cash rewards too. It’s going to be a fun, interactive way to teach the key benefits of our Cadet 3, Champion 4 and Madera flushing platforms.
TOM: Team 2 is one toilet paper toss away from the championship and the cash money. The windup, the pitch, and winner! All right, champion! The American Standard ProChampion, here he is right here. Woohoo!
What are you going to do with your winnings?
SPEAKER 13: Ah, I think I’ll go buy a Cadet 4 toilet.
TOM: All right.
What do you think of the American Standard Champion 4 here?
SPEAKER 14: Best toilet we put in today.
GROUP: American Standard rocks!
TOM: It’s been an exciting day here at the Aaron & Company Contractor Expo. We helped those guys celebrate their 75th anniversary, and had some fun. We’ve seen some fantastic products, and we’ve learned how American Standard makes life easier for plumbers. To stay on top of all the latest innovations in your industry all year long, log on to plumberprotects.com and while you’re there, sign up for the ProChampion League. For American Standard ProChampion ProCast, I’m Tom Kraeutler, thanks for watching.
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