Craft Show results

[Evelyn]

Sunday afternoon I had a very small craft show...I was the only vendor that showed up!  It was a hazy, hot and humid day in the 90's.  The show was to benefit The Laurel Shelter which is a safe haven for abused women and children and was sponsored by the Blue Knights, a law enforcement motorcycle club.  Last year this event raised $1400.00 for the shelter and had 80 riders, this year they only raised $1,000.00.  The show was scheduled from 12 to 4, but it only lasted 2 1/2 hours and had about 25 participants/riders.  I sold a few items, had to fit inside saddle bags and I packed foam and other items to facilitate that requirement.  Bottom line, items priced at $20.00 and below were the "big" sellers.  I did sell two wine rings, but everything else was the smaller items and smaller prices, in all I had sales of $201.00.
One of my girlfriends did a Relay for Life event on Friday night and she didn't sell one thing and she had made up a number of awareness ribbons.
My next show is scheduled for next Saturday and its being held at Buckroe Beach and I'm taking mostly "beachy" themed items and my ribbon angels and will again take mostly items under $20.00.

[JoanFrances]

With only 25 people showing up your sales were not bad Evelyn. 

Did they raise anything for the purpose the event was scheduled?  Good luck at your next show. 

[PiscesGlass]

Good for you Evelyn!  Considering what many people had for vehicles (Bikes :-0) it sounds like you did okay.  Fun to have the sales anyway and what does sell gives you a good idea of what people like.  Although at this show it may have also been indicative of what they were able to carry.

I wonder why more vendors didn't show up?  Was there a table fee for the show?

Hoping for good luck for you at your next show!!

De

[Elizabeth]

Hope next weekend's sales go better, Evelyn!   The smaller items selling seems to be a world wide trend!!  In my corner of the world I find that people need to 'justify' buying something - eg:  'It will match my lounge scheme' - 'nice little gifts to have on hand'  -  'Aunt Daisey just loves butterfly's'  instead of just buying 'cos they like it !!   I firmly beleive there is a buyer out there for every item - you just have to have the patience to wait for them to come along!!!

[Evelyn]

Good for you Evelyn!  Considering what many people had for vehicles (Bikes :-0) it sounds like you did okay.  Fun to have the sales anyway and what does sell gives you a good idea of what people like.  Although at this show it may have also been indicative of what they were able to carry.

I wonder why more vendors didn't show up?  Was there a table fee for the show?

Hoping for good luck for you at your next show!!

De


De,
No table fee just a donation to the shelter.

[Evelyn]

With only 25 people showing up your sales were not bad Evelyn. 

Did they raise anything for the purpose the event was scheduled?  Good luck at your next show. 

Joan, they raised $1,000.00 for the shelter through the poker ride and raffle tickets.

[Barbara]

At least the $1000.00 was raised for the shelter and next week will be better for you.  Your pocket will fill up and hopeful that the weather behaves.

[Audrey]

Sounds like you made out okay for the situation, and you got a good feel for what was selling.

[Kev]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and you did OK at that! Hopefully it will continue to improve for you.

[JoanFrances]

At least the $1000.00 was raised for the shelter and next week will be better for you.  Your pocket will fill up and hopeful that the weather behaves.

WOW, not bad for so few people. 

[ct4mom]

Congrats Evelyn, Even though a small show you did well, good luck on the next one.

[Anne]

I did a show this weekend too.  As in keeping with the last two years sales were down about 15%. That didn't surprise me and I think I'll continue to build with that in mind for the rest of the year. I sold ones and twos of most everything under $20. Did actually sell a few larger pieces but the most pricey thing that sold was $49. I've stopped taking anything big with me to the shows now, used to take a couple of wow pieces but that didn't seem to draw people in any more than the sparkly little pieces so I stopped carrying those bigger peices around - they were a lot harder to transport anyway.  This way I don't have to worry about them breaking. The show I just did was a 3 day one that's been going for over 30 years. Fairly expensive booth but the show draws a lot of people so one tends to justify the cost that way.  There were tons of people through in the three days, probably upwards of 15,000 - maybe more. Lots of lookers, very few shoppers. Shows you what the real state of the economy is, regardless of what we're hearing via the media.  So while sales weren't as good as we'd hoped they'd be we had a blast people watching! Met lots of nice people and had fun!

So..........while I'll continue to do the shows this year I'll  continue to build 'small'.  People are still looking for gifts (and this early in the year lots of them were buying Christmas gifts), but overall they are spending less than in years past - in my experience anyway!  Good luck to the rest of you in your shows.

[Barbara]

Glad it wasn't too bad for you Anne. Hopefully the next ones will be better.

[Lou Ann]

Thanks for sharing your experiences Evelyn and Anne,

My last fair was the weekend of the TN flooding so I attributed my reduced sales to that but it sounds like people still aren't buying like they used to...

I have a fair coming up the end of July so I'm concentrating on the small stuff...

Hope you both do better with your next fairs.

Lou Ann

[ct4mom]

I was talking to my cousin and his wife that do many high end shows in many eastern states. She is a painter and he is a photographer and their sales are way down as well. We are having the huge Art Festival here this weekend which they will be at and they are hoping things will be better....we will see.

[Judy K]

Hang in there. The economy is in a rough spot, no one has enough confidence to just spend freely right now.

[Blondie]

Craft Shows are tough in these times. You price, pack, go early set up, spend a lot of money for a booth. Then wait, Watch ppl go by not buying anything. Well what do you do? You can't make them buy it. So you decide to put your things in a gallery then they mark it up 40% or more. Then the ppl go in buy maybe the cheapest thing or nothing at all. So guess the next best thing is to make something for yourself & enjoy it. Forget the rat race, & guessing games.

Blondie

[Audrey]

Thanks for sharing, guys. I am going to start this fall to do maybe 3-4 shows locally a year. It is good for me to hear all this and know what to expect.

[Evelyn]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes.  I'm excited about the show this Saturday, its a first time show for the Buckroe Beach area and is being promoted by the City of Hampton and area merchants.  Mike, from The Glass Gallery asked me to do the show with him, so I will have some great company and his work is amazing.  We are both mainly concentrating on beach theme items.  I am taking only one large panel which is a black heron and Mike is taking one or two large panels, then the rest are small items.  However, Mike does these amazing benches and he is taking five of those and we will have fun moving them since the tops alone weigh 150 pounds....oh my aching back...lol.
This will be my last show until The Fall Festival (I got accepted) which is the first weekend in October, so I'll have time to make lots and lots of small items.  This is the show that gets 70,000 visitors, so hopefully I will have some buyers (lets keep our fingers and toes crossed).

Anne, love the feedback on your show and I can echo your sentiments.  I met some really nice people Sunday and the music was wonderful and they fed me and I had some sales, so what more could I ask for.

[Audrey]

Good luck, Evelyn, and be sure to have fun, too.