The Board Chronicles: Grace Baptist Church MOPS Holiday Boutique

henrymowry

11 years ago

The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.

The ladies worked this event last year, and they LOVED it. They experienced crowd-sourced euphoria during the event: it was that exciting. Great indoor venue, less than 1 mile from our house. Perfect.

We expected the same results this year, with the hopes of doing better. Last year, we had sales of $674 with the ladies admitting that they were so overwhelmed with the positive response to the lotions, they didn’t have much focus on board sales. So, we thought we had an upside.

Set up was Friday afternoon. Less than a mile from our house.

I love local events.

New Ideas

We had to rethink the display, since our standard display elements were committed to the bigger, simultaneous event at Saugus High, the Boutique Fantastique. With the help of MrsMowry (not a lotion-making Mrs M, but a Mrs M nonetheless), we fashioned new display elements using egg baskets, wicker and burlap for a more rustic look. I made additional board stands to hold some boards vertical on the table the ladies gave me.
Last year, we had 2 parallel tables. This year, we had two tables shaped in an “L.” Big changes.
This event was run by the Mrs M’s. I was at the other event at Saugus High … so the ladies did it all on Saturday.
New products: 37 Building Blocks from Mr M. From Mrs M, we had Boo Boo Balm and Skin Soother. The new scent of the season was Pumpkin Pecan Waffle Lotion Bars.

Observations

The event lacked the enthusiasm that the ladies loved last year. Not sure why the event was dead, but the planners were perhaps less involved with hyping the room.
Last year, we had more space. This year, we were scrunched by the table behind us. Table top events without well-defined borders are a challenge.
Friendly crowd … but word was the event wasn’t even promoted in the church bulletin. No advertising. No promotion. The result: our sales were down significantly.
One mother had to stop her 4 year old from taking a bite out of a lotion bar tester. Good reaction, Mom.

The Food

Saturday Breakfast: PBJ

Saturday Lunch: from the Grilled Cheese truck, Grilled Mac & Cheese with BBQ Pork

Saturday Snack: none

Saturday Dinner: Bella Cucina, because the pregnant Mrs M wanted to go to the best Italian restaurant in Santa Clarita. She gets what she wants, because she’s the boss of me.