What started years ago as W.W. Grainger’s annual national sales meeting in Orlando, FL, has evolved into a sprawling trade conference and exhibition, with a major emphasis on Grainger’s safety products and services. “Think Safety. Think Grainger.” — signage was everywhere at the Grainger Show 2015, held this past February in Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center. The 2015 show – with 750 booths, 137,00 square feet of exhibit space, and 17,000 attendees – rivals the size of any trade show serving the MRO and safety marketplaces.
Grainger’s aggressive push into the world of workplace safety and health continues to evolve, as evidenced by the number of safety-related exhibit booths, safety seminars, safety resources distributed at the show, such as Grainger’s “Safety & Compliance Directory,” announcements about Grainger’s partnerships with the National Safety Council and the American Society of Safety Engineers, and tours of one of Grainger’s traveling shoemobiles – one of a fleet of mobile safety footwear stores acquired when Grainger purchased the Ohio-based safety distributor Safety Solutions ($53 million in sales) in 2013.