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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The Great Fair is held in Fountain Hills, AZ. We actually attended this event before we were vendors; brought to it by our snowbird Aunt & Uncle that live in the Phoenix area. With their recommendation – and the promise of an all too rare visit if we just came to this event, we were all in. The dates were February 23 & 24, 2019.
New Ideas
- The weather forecast was not good for this February event: it was probably going to be cold and wet. Therefore, we planned for it and brought our Trimline. The event has a Friday set up, so we drove in on Friday, put up the booth, and then returned to the hotel.
- Our timing was good. Just as we had the booth up and returned to the car, the “wintry mix” began to fall. Cold & wet, indeed.
Observations
- When we arrived Saturday morning, it took some time for me to realize that the rain that fell in Fountain Hills (we had stayed in a motel a few miles away) was colder than we had at the motel. In fact, it was freezing.
- 4″ of heavy wet snow – actually icy slush – was on the roof of the Trimline. Walking around the event, I saw at least 12 canopies that had been crushed by the weight of the snow. Product was destroyed. Nothing good comes from weather this cold and wet.
- As it warmed up a bit on Saturday, the snow melt began to flow. Since the event is on a hill, we had an icy river flowing through the booth all day long. Thank goodness I transport all of my boards in plastic tubs … everything was soaked that touched the asphalt.
- Also, thank goodness I wore my hiking boots to the event with heavy socks. It was *cold* standing in the icy snow melt that flowed through the booth all weekend.
- With weather this cold and wet, sales were poor, of course. Several experienced vendors that we respect told us to not judge the event based on this year; better sales would come with better weather.
- Best comment of the event: 5 senior citizens walked by the booth. The ladies were all 75+. The oldest looking lady, 85 if she was a day, read one of my signs out loud as the group was strolling. The other ladies had no clue what she was talking about, so when she read this sign, her companions were shocked!
- Will I come back? Probably. Will I pray for better weather? Definitely.
The Food
- Best Meal: Dinner with family for the win.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 906
- Booth cost: $1,000
- Food cost: $158
- Travel cost: $273
- Total sales: $1,406
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 0
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 0
- Saturday alarm: 6a
- Sunday alarm: 6a
- # transactions: not nearly enough
- Returning next year? No. The calendar didn’t work out for 2020. Maybe next year.
Boards sold: 26
