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.
This year is not turning out how ANYONE thought it would.
The biggest & best events for makers of handmade goods on the west coast have been the Harvest Festivals … for the last several decades. These are great events, and in fact my largest event in 2019 was a Harvest Festival.
But this is 2020, and California is locked down. Totally locked down in many counties, a bit looser in others. This event was in Pleasanton, which is in Alameda county. Fortunately, that county is a little bit open.
Open enough that the promoters found a way to stage a “Marketplace,” which is not a “Festival” or a “Boutique.”
Words matter, apparently.
Works for me. I was on my way to an event in California!
New Ideas
This was my first California event in 2020. I typically have been doing about 30 events a year … this year will be only 5. And, 3 of those will be in Arizona; 2 will be in California. I think.
I had my biggest and best inventory yet, with 900 pieces available. They all don’t fit in the trailer, but I now have a deep inventory in Cutting Boards, Serving Pieces, Cribbage Boards and Signs.
All booths were socially distanced, spread among 3 buildings in this county fairground. Hand sanitizer was available at every building entrance. Attendance was limited to 50% of capacity, but I don’t think that was ever an issue. The crowd was good but never large, the traffic was steady.
The fairgroun was happy to see us: they had not had many events in these buildings this year. Our promoters found a way, and that is a very good thing.
I now have so much inventory, I have to pick and choose what I’m taking to the event, and what I’m leaving at home. That’s a wonderful problem to have.
Observations
I’m out of practice, but I did pack everything I needed … except for the key to the cash drawer, which is attached to a tape measure. So, the cash drawer stayed in the trailer, and I headed to Home Depot to get a tape measure that now lives in my container of critical booth supplies that goes to every event. You know, things like tape. A hole punch. And business cards.
Two ladies came into the booth, and delivered the quote that all vendors at this event were waiting to hear: “We’ve been cooped up, dammit. Let us shop!”
I was happy to oblige the ladies.
The vendors were all happy to be there. These days, people are really happy to be just about anywhere but home, y’know?
Masks were required, and people were 100% compliant.
Requests were for an Aggravation board (coming, I promise!), pig cutting boards (left at home!) and a dough board (also left at home!).
She said … “Do you have this sign in a smaller and cheaper version?” She was pointing to my smallest sign, priced at $30. And, uh, no. Sorry.
Eating out has been one of the fun things for when I travel, even if only for a meal or 2. During the pandemic, though, eating out is either difficult or impossible. Having food delivered is like being pranked … the delivery person often knocks on your door and runs away before you even get the door open. As the song says, “The times, they are a-changing.” I’m not sure this is what Dillon meant when he wrote the song 56 years ago, though.
This was a very good event, and I give full credit to the promoters that FOUND A WAY TO PRODUCE AN EVENT. In this pandemic, that was no small task. At all. It was my pleasure to be a part of this all-too-rare 2020 shopping event for handmade goods.
The Food
Best Meal: Velda’s frozen spaghetti dinner for the win. I’m no fool.
Worst Meal: I went to have my “free” breakfast at the Best Western I was at, not realizing that the reality of “free” in the covid era is a brown bag with a granola bar, an apple, and a bottle of water. Oh, and a packaged muffin. To go, only. I almost started missing the hated plastic cheese omelettes.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 694
Booth cost: $1,590
Travel cost: $930
Total sales: $4,788
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 1
Friday alarm: 6a
Saturday alarm: 6:30a
Sunday alarm: 6:30a
# transactions: 56x
# soap & lotion vendors: There was one for sure. Maybe more.
# woodworking vendors: No direct competitors, but many people were there that use wood as their medium. But … no direct competitors.
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.
** ** **
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!
** ** **
The Camp Fire was largely contained by now, but this event still was smoke impacted on November 16 – 18, 2018. Sacramento is much closer to Paradise (only 88 miles), but the smoke was less bothersome, and got better every day. But would it be enough?
After having a very, very disappointing event last weekend, I was hopeful. That’s all I had, really. If this event didn’t score, then I would be in a deep hole.
New Ideas
Last week was my first Harvest Festival, so I got a $100 discount off of the price. This week, no discount. I paid the full $1,590, which was now the most I’ve ever paid for an event.
Observations
I arrived at the motel Wednesday night and was in the middle of a little insurrection. There was no hot water in the motel due to some plumbing issue. People were yelling, checking out, not checking in … it was a mess. I got the room key & hoped (that word again) that I would have hot water the next day.
I did.
Friday started hot. I was ‘whelmed by 1pm. I had people standing in line – 3 deep – to give me money a couple of times. Those are good times.
I had a person give me a suggestion for a sign (this never ends well):
If you love someone, set them free
If you hate someone, set them free
In fact, set everyone free
People are stupid. Get a dog.
Requests were for an appetizer server with a slot for a wine glass, odd cribbage boards, a thinner heart-shaped board (mine are 3/4″ thick), and 2 separate requests for deviled egg trays. These are my people … and this will happen soon, I said to myself. A year ago.
Editor’s note: it’s now 2020. Deviled egg trays will happen soon. I’m working on the design now. Honest.
This event was great. I couldn’t believe how many pieces I was selling … and by Sunday, it was clear I had done something special.
Best. Solo. Event. Ever.
I sold more pieces at this event than I ever have before. Even with the increase in volume, though, my average selling price was higher than ever before. Sacramento came to shop, without question!
The top selling items were from the CNC. Signs were my top seller, but almost everything I sold had been touched by the CNC.
I had a long drive home on Monday, but there was a smile on my face.
The Food
Best Meal: I had a treat meal at a BJ’s that was pretty tasty. The venue was very near a shopping/restaurant district, so life was good
The Facts
Total miles driven: 768
Booth cost: $1,590
Food cost: $232
Travel cost: $580
Total sales: $5,637
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 2
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
# transactions: 58
# soap & lotion vendors: my next door neighbor was a soaper, so I felt right at home
# woodworking vendors: many, many woodworkers are here. My favorite is a retired couple that owns (?) a company in North Carolina making lawn furniture out of white oak. Very nice work … but the “sellers” were definitely not the “makers,” at least not anymore.
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.
** ** **
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!
** ** **
In California, the “professional” vendors that do handmade goods exhibit at the Harvest Festivals. There are 8 or 9 of them (depending on the year), with one in Las Vegas, and then the remainder split about evenly between northern and southern California.
Everyone says it: the Harvest Festivals are great. But be ready: you sell a lot of stuff. Biggest events of the year. Be ready.
I was ready.
In our 5th year of vending, I committed to 2 of the Harvest Festivals: San Mateo and Sacramento. Neither are close to us, of course, but they fit on the calendar.
I was ready.
Then, we had the Camp Fire: the deadliest, most destructive wild fire in California history.
Paradise got most of the press on how bad things were, and Paradise is 200 miles from San Mateo. I thought we’d be OK … not knowing the wind patterns in the bay area took the smoke right to my destination. While we were having our event, there were warnings to stay indoors.
That’s no way to have a good event that requires patrons to drive at least some distance to come to the event, y’know?
New Ideas
Harvest Festivals require Thursday set ups, and the events run Friday – Sunday. I drove up Wednesday for an early Thursday set up. I stayed in the least expensive motel I could find in or near San Mateo … and you can use your imagination. I can assure you while in my room I was doing my best to NOT imagine what was around me.
This is the most expensive event I have ever done: $1,490 for my double booth.
Bright yellow signs were available to me: NEW VENDOR. I appreciated that.
The event has prominent entertainment: there’s a Santa on stilts. There are cowboys riding horses … well, there are guys in cowboy costumes walking around with a horse costume around their waist like they are “riding.” Definitely a lot to see here.
Observations
This is a professional operation. 200+ vendors. Some pay for cartage to have their display pieces and inventory delivered to the aisle in front of their booth, event to event. Some are newbies like me … but the bar is very high here.
Some of the requirements for these events:
no handwritten signs
cover all metal poles
all handmade
focused booth lighting is required: they turn down the general illumination in the hall
One of the veterans introduced himself to me … and said, “you know the new guy brings coffee, right?” The promoter provides the coffee, incidentally!
A neighbor said she’d been vending her whole life … “my Mom was selling tie dye shirts at Dead shows.” Welcome to San Francisco.
Heard from a young Miss walking by: “Who’s Julia Child?” That’s not my audience!
I had requests for spatulas, collapsible wooden baskets (I HATE those imports, and they all are!), a checkerboard cutting board (no thanks), more boards with “crumb catchers,” small Lazy Susans, bowl-shaped Lazy Susans, tea towel holders, round cutting boards … lots of requests from a crowd that didn’t buy that much!
In the end, this event was destroyed by the fire. Attendance was down, I was told. This was never one of the larger Harvest Festivals, but with the fire, the event was just devastated.
Final analysis: with the high booth fee, high hotel and travel costs … I actually lost money doing this event.
The Food
Best Meal: Nope. I went out; fast food & burgers.
The Facts
Total miles driven: 727
Booth cost: $1,490
Food cost: $128
Travel cost: $780
Total sales: $2,708
# of people we met during the event from the producer: 2
Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: several
# transactions: not enough, but I did stay busy
# soap & lotion vendors: several. Not many have it going on like Mrs M does with her cold process soap, but pricing was *very* competitive
# woodworking vendors: Several, doing all manner of work. The craft is well represented.
Returning next year? No … regardless of the fire, I lost money. I won’t return quickly.
