Yesterday Lisa and I did a craft show. The promoters promised music, food trucks and lots of traffic. Well it was not exactly like that. My total sale for the day were $5.00, not even enough to cover gas. There were less than 200 people from 9 am to 2 pm. But I did take away a lot of laugh lines. No names will be attached to any of this randomness.
On the subject of WiFi. A vendor near me could not find a free wifi hot spot. So she asked if she could use my WiFi,. I politely said no, but wanted to say hell no. I told here just to use the one on her phone and offered to help her get her wifi working. So out comes a phone style from so last century, It looked like the phones I had in the 1980s and 90's. Someone told her that it was an android phone and did not get apps or have wifi. Thank you AARP for the basic phone, but you might want to tell people it is not an android phone.
Know your audience. I have one of my spinning wheels up for sale. So I took it with me. A man approached me wanting to buy it. The Lendrum is a complete package with with both a high speed flyer and a plying head, with extra bobbins. I had a sign asking for $600 or the best offer. He said it was too much. So I asked what he was going to be using it for. So he told me he worked with a day training program for the disabled and seniors at a ranch down the road. So I told him that I would sell him the basic wheel for $450. He said it was still too much, would I trade the wheel for 1 bag of alpaca fiber (not skirted or or washed). I said no. He then went on to tell me how tired he was at the end of the day when he left work to go home (really!!! he gets to go home at the end of the day, how lucky). How I just did not understand how hard it was to work with the disabled all day, trying to get me to give him the wheel for free. I said I did not think my husband would go for it. A very good try though.
No, to be honest, I did not tell him about Eric or about the week from he double toothpicks that we just came out of. We were all sick and we still had to take care of Eric 24/7. What got me is that he felt that he was entitled to a free spinning wheel just because he took a job working with the disabled. One person I know used the Yiddish "S" word when I told the story. This is a family friendly blog, I will not use bad words here.
Will I undercut Walmart's prices. A mother was shopping with her daughter. The daughter liked one of my $18.00 scarfs and wanted to buy it. The mother said that if I would sell it for less the she could buy the same scarf at Walmart her daughter could have it. Do I look like a Big Box store using low quality materials and sweatshop labor?
Speaking of Big Box stores, a lady liked my hand spun art yarn which I sell for $5.00 per ounce. Not a bad price for using yak, silk, mohair, camel, different kinds of wool and other high end fibers. She then went to to say that she could get 8 ounces of yarn (heavens only knows what fiber) for $5.00 at here local Big Box Craft Store. She could get 12 ounce for $5.00 when it was on sale. Would I sell her 12 ounces of Art Yarn for $5.00? Really!!! Do I look like a Big Box Craft Store?
Sending out the scouts. I really liked the mother (not) who sent her children to scout out other booths taking pictures of things that they like so that she could duplicate other people's work. Really, with sites like Pintrest and Raverly which are free to use, is is really necessary to send your kids out to rip off the creative work of other people? Lots of people are will to share their ideas and patterns for free.
To top off the day I was offered a spot at another craft show next weekend. The promoter would take the 1st $15.00 in sales, then I could keep the rest. This was not really a craft fair but a promotion for a charity in town. She just wanted people to have something to look at after they dropped off their donations. Oh and she wanted a special order too, but refused to put money down. My booth was filled with a lot of special orders which people requested, but did not put money down for. Then after the hand knit was made they said no to making the purchase. So this has prompted a new policy.
Special Orders require a 50% non refundable deposit, which will be applied to the purchase price of the finished object. No exceptions.
