The Board Chronicles: Faire On The Square 2018

henrymowry

8 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.

Once you embrace the idea of doing big events, you have to get out of town.

So, knowing that I had to do something over the holiday weekend, I decided to go a-vendoring in Arizona for the second time. But, since Mrs M claimed to have to work at her “job,” I was a solo act.

And I went far afield.

Prescott (rhymes with biscuit) was the original territorial capitol of Arizona. It’s the county seat, and the courtyard lawn hosts many vendor-driven events throughout the summer & fall: the city has an elevation over 5,000′, so Phoenix comes here to cool off.

I’m told.

I wonder if they need cutting boards?

Faire on the Square is produced by the Chamber of Commerce, and features 150+ vendors. Many “professional” vendors do this event. At this point, I think I’m in that group. One thing is for sure: I won’t be considered a local at this event.

New Ideas

I’m driving the trailer across the desert with my big Trimline canopy. I’m told it does rain on occasion. I’m ready for anything.
As I drove into Prescott, I heard a loud sound … cicadas, I thought. But, it’s been a while since I have been around them, and it was SO LOUD, I actually rolled down the car window to make sure something wasn’t wrong with the car. Lots of cicadas in the pine trees here!
I’m picking up temp labor at the event to help me put up & take down the canopy. I’m told there are homeless people around to help.
2 new items here: cribbage boards sets (I have 4 prototypes), and I’ve actually made stands for sale. They are here. They are available.

Observations

Wait, what? I’m supposed to hire homeless people?
Come to find out, I did find some helpers, and they were underemployed but not homeless. Nice people. Of the 5 that I talked to about helping me, I actually had 2 show up as promised. I made it work.
This event has a couple of quirks you have to deal with:
- Check in is 4pm Friday, and set up can begin after the last judge leaves the courthouse at about 6pm.
- No vendor displays, canopies, etc, are allowed to touch the courthouse lawn. Wooden blocks (2x4s suggested) must be between every canopy leg, table & product container so that the grass can be allowed to breathe as much as possible.
- I dealt with it.
Set-up was fine, and I ended up having 3 people help. One helper was great, one was good, and one was annoying. Such is life.
Parking is a bit of a challenge for loading/unloading, but the COC reserves the parking around the square for vendors. I was there early for check-in, and parked the trailer in the perfect spot. After load-in began, I was yelled at by a vendor for parking my trailer in 5 parking spots so no one else could use them. Not accurate: I was in 2 spots, not 5. And I was actively unloading, as I was supposed to be doing. Why she was entitled to the parking spots that I had, I’m not sure, but she was ticked at me.
And, vice versa.
First sale on Saturday: one of the new 5-section servers.
Second sale: one of the new cribbage boards.
Third sale: Can I have a stand with that? Why, yes, yes you can.
I know I’m in the west. Cowboys are here. And … one lady saw my 3D carved cribbage board top, and wanted to buy it. Just the top. I eventually got 2 requests (and no sales at my quoted price).
We take shop towels to events to clean with. I dust off my boards. Mrs M cleans her soap (think about it). We use a few towels; I typically stick a few into a cutting board container; there are a few in our bag of bags as well. At the last event, we had towels everywhere. Mrs M was offended, I guess, and she, uh, got us better organized. This time, there were zero towels. None. Good thing Mrs M didn’t need one to clean her soap, since she was at her “job.”
Most common question of the weekend: “Did you write these signs?”
Hmmm. I didn’t write the quotes from Julia Child, Mark Twain, Shakespeare or Miss Piggy, no. I did write some of the others; I researched some and made them my own. One thing I do know: my signs amuse people passing the booth, and I think that’s a good thing. Maybe someday they’ll stop passing by and begin to look around to buy stuff. Maybe.
A woman walks into the booth:
- “Are these canvases marked full price?”
  - “Uh … well, they are marked at the only price. Yes, that’s full price.”
- “But there was a booth across the square that said all canvases are half off. So are these half off?”
  - No. Just no.
A man walks into the booth:
- “Do you have any cat signs?”
  - “No, no cat signs.”
- “What, you don’t like cats?”
  - “Uh, no, all of my signs are food-related. I’m all about food here.”
- “Maybe you’ll have cat signs next year.”
  - No. Just no.
A woman walks into the booth:
- “You know what sign you should make?”
  - (this will end badly, I know) “What?”
- “Make ‘I laughed so hard that tears ran down my leg!’ Ladies will love it!”
  - No. Just no.
A couple walks into the booth:
- She said, “What’s a trivet?”
  - “It’s to protect your table & counter from hot stuff. When you have hot stuff, it needs protecting.”
- He said, “I tell her that all of the time.”
I have 2 plaques, “Family” & “In This House,” that I often display on a front table. I had them there on Saturday, and then moved them on Sunday to put a pig-themed display in their place, as Mrs M did last week. Changing things up can be good, right? Monday, a lady walked by with her friend and I overheard her say “It serves me right for not buying it when I saw it!” I asked what, and the Family sign was what she liked. I showed it to her around the corner, hanging on the wall, and she was surprised she hadn’t noticed that WALL OF SIGNS when she walked by them. Eventually, she bought a different sign from that display.

CNC Sign 18 – 46. Cherry. 12″ x 16″.

CNC Sign 18 – 50. Cherry. 13″ x 16″.

Oh, and 2 pig signs did sell. Family & In This House? Nope.
It rained a bit on Sunday evening, but after the event was really over at 5pm. It rained again on Monday after load out was in full swing … I was soaked by the time I was loaded. Soaked. Happily, I was going back to the AirBnB so I could dry off and have a nice dinner. Driving home, soaked to the skin … would not have been fun.
Requests were for wooden crosses, a magnetic chess board, a 2-player cribbage set (coming!), very small cutting boards, a smaller Lazy Susan and a board to cook a fish on (no, I don’t sell raw cedar planks to burn in a fire).

The Food

Best Meal: Frozen meals from the microwave were my dinner each night. I had Velda’s spaghetti, Chicken Marsala, and a travel-ready lasagna she put together.
Worst Meal: Driving across the desert, I couldn’t find suitable nourishment, so I settled for a gas station cheeseburger & chips. High living.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 891
Booth cost: $550
Food cost: $49
Travel cost: $530
Total sales: $2,439
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $1,310
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 3
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 1
Saturday alarm: 5:30a
Sunday alarm: nope
Monday alarm: nope
# transactions: 29
# soap & lotion vendors: there were a couple I saw, but I only saw about half of the vendors
# woodworking vendors: there was one guy making wooden acoustic amplifiers for smart phones … very interesting little creations featuring brass horns.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 37:4
Returning next year? Probably