PHOENIX — Castle Megastore hosted an expanded version of its annual vendor expo last Friday at the Phoenix Marriott Tempe at The Buttes, which concluded with the first-ever Castle Megawards that honored the retail chain’s stand-out locations and managers.
For photos of the event, click here.
The awards included 16 categories and also acknowledged Castle’s top vendors.
Vendors that received special recognition at the Castle Megawards included:
Dreamgirl International, Evolved, Pipedream, Goldreallas, System Jo, Secret Desires, Electric Lingerie, ID Lubes, Liberator, Lelo, Nasstoys, Wicked Sensual, California Exotic Novelties, Jopen, International Intimates, Fun Factory, Paradise Marketing, XR Brands, Tantus, NS Novelties, We-Vibe, Icon Brands, MD Science, Seven Til Midnight, Sportsheets, Screaming O, XGEN, Doc Johnson, Aneros, Topco, Hott Products, and Blush.
The awards were presented by Castle Megastore executives, including CEO Mark Franks, during a cocktail and dinner reception on Friday evening that featured a Hollywood theme complete with parody movie posters featuring Castle’s staff, a red carpet and Oscar-themed trophies.
“Castle is known for carrying the best brands and the biggest selection in adult retail and each store prides itself on providing the best customer service,” Franks said in his opening of the show.
As part of the show, Castle Megastore produced a behind-the-scenes video titled “Castle Code” — which can be viewed here — modeled after MTV’s “Guy Code” and “Girl Code.”
From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., vendors had an opportunity to provide education through one-on-one meetings with Castle Megastore retail managers and associates with their products on full display in exhibition booths that filled one of the ballrooms in the Marriott hotel. Participating vendors included Aneros, Screaming O, Nasstoys, Sportsheets, XGEN Products, CalExotics, Icon Brands, Electric Lingerie and LELO, among several others.
“It was a great expo, we had 32 vendors,” Franks said. “It was the biggest expo that we’ve ever done – we opened it up this year because there were so many vendors that wanted to be a part of it and never any participating exhibitors wanting to give up their spots. We expanded it and brought in all of our associates, assistant managers and supervisors from all of our Phoenix stores plus we brought in the managers from all of our stores, plus our corporate office and distribution center. We had a very good turnout and everyone was really pleased with the quality of the event and what we got out of it.”
