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.
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A note about my absence. After a few months of getting more and more behind … I still haven’t caught up.
I will, just not today. In the interim, here’s the latest installment of The Board Chronicles for all of you that have been missing my missives.
Enjoy, and thank you for your patience!
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I like trying new events … but they are often high risk.
Such was the case with the 62nd Annual Good Old Days in Pacific Grove, CA. I couldn’t find a vendor that had tried the event, and the information I did get was primarily from the Chamber of Commerce, whose job it is to promote tourism!
I decided to take a chance.
30,000+ in attendance was promised. And that number of people may have been there. Somewhere.
Today, I can state with certainty that the vast majority of them never found my booth. As we shall see, that was no small task….
New Ideas
- New events are always difficult: you have to figure out everything. This event was made more difficult because the street names changed near the downtown area where this event was set up … and every direction I received in writing as well as in person was not correct.
Observations
- While I was trying to follow those directions, I got trapped with the trailer between a couple of kiddy rides … getting out was not pretty. Good directions would have been so, so helpful.
- By the time I found booths 212 and 213, I was not a happy camper. But, I unloaded the trailer, parked & got to work.
- My neighbor was some sort of chiropractor, I think. In any event, they placed their Honda generator right behind my booth.
- I wasn’t going to catch a break at this event.
- Community events can be very, very good … or they can be without value to out of town vendors like me. Such was the case here: it was a waste of my time. Sales didn’t get over $1,000, and I’m *never* happy with that.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 623
- Booth cost: $570
- Food cost: $124
- Travel cost: $230
- Total sales: $879
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 0
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 0
- # transactions: 12 (see the problem?)
- # soap & lotion vendors: no clue
- # woodworking vendors: no clue
- Returning next year? Never
Boards sold: 12
- Surfboards: 2
- Cheese Slicer: 1
- Cutting Boards: 2
- Trivet: 1
- Cribbage Board: 1
- California Bear: 1
- Sign: 1
- Chess Board: 1
- Lazy Susan: 1
- Magic Knife Holder: 1
