First of Fall Shows

[Willy]

Well the first round of Fall Shows is over with, has been a hetic couple of weeks but so far 5 events are completed.  The first showing went quite well, but it was limited to a special group that we do repeatedly, so expected good results.  The next two we have done now for 4 years and will seriously have to think about doing again or hope the economy is much better next year.  Didn't cover our space fees at either and actually didn't sell a thing jewelry, lapidary or mineral wise at the one which has always been a good show in the past.  

So tried something new this year, a 3 day show at the local mall, that they were calling Mall Market Days.  Actually did relative speaking quite well for the size of the crowds, which I thought was poor for a major mall in this area, but we were also competeing with several other major events, like a Home Show, all the Friday night and all day Sat High School Football games, a Gun Show and 3 major Church Bazaars.   So for the hours spent - 8am until 9pm for Fri and Sat and 10am until 6pm on Sunday, we were pooped and really worn out and our income would be measured as a negative figure.  Also lots of rules by the mall management we have never had to deal with at any previous shows we have sold at -  the mall decided the colors that had to be used to drap the tables, and they had to be draped on the back side as well as the fronts (see pics below).  No storage boxes or stock boxes could be seen in the booth, had to have folding chairs, no lawn or plastic chairs, lighting had to be with CFC bulbs, no spotlights or high intensity bulbs, no food or drink allowed at the booth.  Oh, and no shorts, T-shirts, tank-tops, sandles or flip-flops to be worn by those doing the selling.  And the biggie, since the mall open area is open 24hrs per day, with a guard who walks the area once every 2-3 hours, we had to take down and reset-up each night and next day, so add a couple more hours onto the length of the day.

But since we did fairly good, wouldn't pay a lot of bills or the mortgage, we agreed to return the end of Oct which being closer to the Holiday Shopping season, may be even better (we can hope).  But in the meantime, we have two of our bigger annual Craft and Jewelry Shows over the next couple of weekends, so that should really give us a taste of what the economy may be like for this year.  Sure hope recovers like was 2 years ago, because last year was a total bust the whole Holiday Season except for one show.  Probably too much to ask and don't really expect too much yet this year.  We have already noticed the demise of many who we have been with at the shows for 4-5 years now.  The real surprise of this Market Days was that other than the main Department Stores like Macys, Dillards, Pennys, Sears who have jewelry, we were the only Jewelry, Gemstone and Lapidary vendor in the entire mall.  The past shows, 80% of the vendors were selling jewelry.

Well the main thing is as long as we can cover the booth fees, meals and travel costs, we think worthwhile sticking it out and keeping our name out there for when we get a economic recovery.  The big thing we did notice, 95% of the sales were cash, a few checks and only a couple credit cards, and thank heavens no debit cards.  Here are pictures of the booth in the mall.  Luckly we were almost in front of Dillards and had to be passed to get to Macys and near the Food Court.

Willy

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[Taogem]

Your booth is sure beautiful and professional looking.

[Bentiron]

Nice looking booth. Sorry to hear sales have not been better. Things just aren't that good in many areas and down right terrible in some. I hope that the remainder of your shows do better.

[stonesthatrock]

the booth is beautiful.......  ralph and i have a show in sedona the middle of oct.  I hope we do well.  Like you we would like to make your expenses, anything plus that is a bonus.

Good Luck on the rest of your shows.

mary ann

[Charlotte]

Very nice setup. 

[thewrightthings]

Great job on the booth.  Must be tiring to keep Mall hours.

[ScarlettoSara]

Very nice booth, colors are very pleasing.  Like the way you have it set up, looks to be easy to navigate around and look at the designs.
Good luck and hope your sales exceed all expectations.

[Bentiron]

do you have any trouble with shop lifting in that kind of situation where you have all your wares on three sides and only two of you?

[Willy]

In 5 years now of shows, have had no shoplifting, but have been stiffed twice on Debit Cards.  That's the reason refuse to take Debit Cards and will only take Credit Cards which can check immediately  and make sure person using is the correct person.  Plus darn credit card bureaus charge the business more for Debit Cards than they do Credit Cards.  So far have not had any checks bounce but did get a counterfiet $20 one time, but I caught that immediately with the little pocket checker and the police got the gal before she got out of the show.  She had a stack of bad $20s in her purse, was buying small items, $1 or $2 each at many booths to get rid of the $20s.  The two gals do the booth and I usually am somewhere near watching what is going on, and I still look military or police enough, I get some looks at times and now and then someone will leave real quickly.  Having my retired PD Badge on my belt is kind of intemidating if someone notices it and it trying something.  Usually volunteer my services to the security at the shows and help out all over.  Just lends more eyes watching what is going on.   Now we have had some friends loose boxes of items at night when the place suppose to be lockeed up and a security guard or PD Officer walking around.  And then we have our Mall Security Forces, and after this past weekend the movie "Mall Cop" was no longer funny watching the mall guys wander and ride around.

Willy

[Bentiron]

I often wondered how good security was at shows after the tables were covered and the lights turned off. That's to bad about the counterfeit twenties. I hope that your sales are better the rest of the season.

[MrsWTownsend]

Weird stories about the scammers...  What dirt bags!

I'm with everyone else, you did great setting up the display.  Sounds like an arduous undertaking over all; you get huge brownie points for going to all of the effort.  I do wish it had been profitable for you but if this was an exception to past events at the same shows then I would definitely take the horrible economy into consideration.  I like to think it [the economy] is going to improve at some point but it's getting difficult to be objective about it!!!

[Willy]

Well the show we did this past weekend was very interesting.  Ran 2 days instead of 3 as the previous weekend and we did almost to the penny the same total business, but this weekend was all cut, drilled and polished pendants and not one CAB sold and not one completed necklace set sold, to the wife's dismay.  Sat was large crowds, Sun had a crowd for an hour after church and the reat of the time the vendors sat and looked at each other.  Now this coming weekend we have the first what I call Major Show, not just a Craft Fair or Craft Bazaar, and there will be vendors at it from out of state, so think it will be the first real test of the economy..

Willy