Mall Craft Shows

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Permalink Reply by Chris Hoyt on January 30, 2012 at 9:02pm

Morristown? I grew up in Succasunna. Escaped to the north country years ago.

I did some mall shows (Rockaway, Livingston) a long time ago, and never did well. And if you have small items, especially in that area, you NEED cases. Stuff will  walk.

And the hours are killers. Long stretches of sheer boredom followed by 2 hours of teenagers. No thanks, Give me a real show like Chester any day.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Berman on January 30, 2012 at 9:55pm

Rockaway and Livingston. You must have done Julie Williams' shows, Woodwill.

I started doing her shows over thirty years ago until I found outdoor art shows.

For anyone interested in doing mall shows. there are no good or bad malls. It depends on who is shopping there that week. People no longer go to malls to shop. More like strip plazas or online. Mall shows are dead.

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

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Permalink Reply by Linnea Lahlum on January 30, 2012 at 11:29pm

I take issue that "People no longer go to malls to shop." In my area the malls are packed. It must just depend on where you are.

 

Though I still wouldn't do a show in one now. I did start in mall shows 20 odd years ago. I believe people are there to shop their favorite stores, and are not interested in looking at anything else, unless you have an impulse item.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Berman on January 30, 2012 at 11:39pm

Issue accepted.

I still go to Ross Park Mall for two reasons. They have an Apple store and a great candy store that my wife loves. But we don't go there more often than two or three times a year. And we go to Pittsburgh Mills because that's where our dog groomer works out of.

Now if Costco's had an art show.....

Larry Berman

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Permalink Reply by Chris Hoyt on January 31, 2012 at 5:59pm

"...I take issue that "People no longer go to malls to shop." In my area the malls are packed. It must just depend on where you are..."

Up here there are no malls at all. It's a minimum 1 hour drive to a mall that has Sears at one end and Kmart at the other. And one of those two is gonna go belly up soon.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Hoyt on January 31, 2012 at 7:11am

Woodwill. Now there's a name from the deep recessess of my alleged mind.

I lived about 15 minutes from Rockaway. My mother in law still lives there. I watched that mall get built.  And I remember Livingston being this long, narrow 2 story thing.

I did one last mall show last year in Saratoga, New York. You're right the malls are d...e...a...d. For the firat time in over 30 years I didn't sell a thing on Sunday. Because there was nobody there.

Never again.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Berman on January 31, 2012 at 7:15am

Going back over thirty years ago. Julie Williams shot herself in the foot by not allowing painters to sell reproductions at her mall shows. Eventually all the painters stopped doing her shows and she had to fill the shows with low end crafts.

Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

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Permalink Reply by Chris Hoyt on January 31, 2012 at 5:54pm

So that's how I  got in! I thought it was because of my wonderful personality!

But I gotta admit, when we were accepted, we thought we were big time! We're in a mall!

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Permalink Reply by Maria Naranjo on January 31, 2012 at 11:00am

Thank you everybody for your help.

I wanted to do a show in Feb but can't find anything until March and then the Mall Craft Shows showed up...

I knew the hours would be a killer for me anyway.

I'm going to park the Mall idea and keep applying to Art & Craft Shows.

Thanks again!

 

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