The Board Chronicles: Santa Barbara Home & Garden Expo 2018

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.

Santa Barbara artists have a virtual monopoly on events in their city. Most events require you to be a county resident to be a vendor. When the opportunity came up to represent at an event in Santa Barbara, I was very interested.

This promoter does 3 home & garden shows in Santa Barbara (and one in Santa Maria) every year. It fit on the calendar.

Let’s see what all the fuss is about in Santa Barbara.

New Ideas

Same setup as last week in Visalia. I didn’t even unload the trailer.
I had a corner location with a wall that extended forward to the door … and the promoter invited me to fill the space. I was happy to oblige with an extra table that I dedicated to a cutting board display. I sold 3 boards off of that “feature” table.

Observations

Got to the venue for setup, and found they had me in a single booth. I asked the promoter if that was a mistake, and she put me in a double. After researching everything following the event, I believe the mistake was mine, but she had the space, so it all worked out.
But … I was right by the exit. I an superstitious about being by the door, but whachagonnado?
This is a relatively small event, with about 70 vendors. All were indoors. Some traditional home show businesses (AC repair, window replacement, bath remodel, etc). Some buy & sell, from Scentsy to import crap. A few artists. And me.
The first buy & sell vendor left at 1:30p on Saturday, after only 3-1/2 hours. I mean, it was slow, but, wow.
I didn’t sell anything until 3p on Saturday. In the next 2 hours, I sold 15 pieces, including 5 cutting boards. Patience is a virtue.
A self-professed turner came into the booth, talked about her passion for the hobby … and bought 2 cutting boards. Loved that!
As at most shows, I was asked if I was local. I generally responded that I was “local-ish,” from 2 hours away. 2 of the questioners talked about how they wish there were local artists here.
What is it with the insular approach to art vendors in Santa Barbara? That’s a mystery to me.
Sunday started slow … and stopped. Not. Good.
This weekend, I could have done the nearby Goleta Lemon Festival, which we’ve done a couple of times previously. That event has not proven very profitable, so I though I’d try something new. This event … was a bit worse.
Requests were for an elephant board, surfboards (I’ve been out for months now), in-counter boards, and a few custom boards “with details to follow.” We’ll see; good follow up orders could make this event more interesting for next year. Without them ….

The Food

Best Meal: Woodstock Pizza, Henry’s MOS. Best pizza I’ve had in some time.
Honorable Mention: Hello, Old Friend
Worst Meal: Chicken & Fries from the diner @ the Showground. The fries were not edible.

The Facts

Total miles driven: 176
Booth cost: $500
Food cost: $96
Travel cost: $315
Total sales: $1,365
Net Revenue (does not include product cost): $454
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 2
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
Saturday alarm: nope
Sunday alarm: nope
# transactions: 10
# soap & lotion vendors: there was one; she had a big bath bomb display
# woodworking vendors: one of the artists there did woodburning, but not woodworking, really. She just decoratively burned pieces of wood.
Edge grain vs. end grain: 15:4. Amazing.
Returning next year? Doubtful.