Our first go at this show and a very confusing one at that. I will bullet point it:
- Setup - best ever. 5 volunteers unloaded the truck, set up 2 tents and staked them. Unbelievable
- Staff - phenomenal, always around
- Volunteers - see above, and was asked hourly if we needed a booth-sitter. Probably made a dozen sales to volunteers as well
- Venue - we were on plush grass under a huge shade tree. Plenty of room, lots of clean porta pots, parking a couple blocks away but not bad. Pull right to the booth.
- "Shoes" - great customers, very few non-buyers.
- Average sale - above average
So.... Why confusing? This was a fantastic show from every perspective except for crowd size! if the attendance had been half of what we expected (est. was 10,000), we would have had a great show! Unfortunately, this is part of a 15 day event and all the advertising was for the 15 day event with very little focus on the Art Festival. So disappointed! The other issue was that it's adjacent to a new Whole Foods store, and the parking lot there was used in the past for the event. Whole Foods stationed guards at the parking lot, interviewing folks to make sure they were shopping at Whole Foods and threatening to tow if they lied. Then, they set up Food Carts at the edge of their property, undercut the prices of the food court for the event (50 feet away), did not pay anything to the event. Nasty business. And yes, undercut as in posted prices, then checked the food court prices, then dropped the prices to $1.00 less than the food court (Crab Cakes went from $11 to $7, the Crab Cake Vendor pulled out and went home). Personally, Whole Foods will never see me in a store again.
Comments
Exactly our experience, Robin. Great customers, just a terrible lack of quantity.
I was there for the first time, and found the attendance disappointing. Most of the people who stopped at my booth had no idea that there was an arts and crafts festival that weekend - They came for the music. A tell-tale sign of the poor attendance was that at lunch time, there were no lines at the food vendor's tents.
Andy - The show hours have always been confusing. Columbia is really two shows. One is the music/stage activity and those performances do go until 10 or 10:30. The other is the Art show which, in the past, has gone until 9PM. Last year a bunch of us talked to the director about how abysmal sales were that late - everyone left at the venue was there for the music. The official closing time for the art show was changed to 8PM on Friday/Saturday and 7PM on Sunday. Much more civilized!
The show seems so far away now, but I was there for the first time last weekend. I sell furniture. I had hall tables and mirrors. I sold 5 pieces for just under $5000 which is okay. Covered my costs etc. It was a well oiled machined and I enjoyed being there. The rain was a pain but we dealt with it. I was glad that at 5:00 pm Friday night, as a storm was rolling in, we were given the option of closing up for the day. We did and I was able to go to the hotel and get 10 hours of needed sleep. Saturday more on and off rain with the a large storm coming at 8.00 pm, we again were allowed to close early. Sunday everyone was on the look out for rain but I think most people were packed up before some drips fell. The show hours going from 11.00 to 10.30pm makes me wonder,how in years passed how artist's survived the long hours.
I'm no fan of whole foods (I like a little trans fat from time to time) but in fairness, they set up their grills and food carts in that parking lot every weekend. If they were price cutting, it was probably to protect the regular business they do every weekend in that lot.
Your other comments were right on. We did have an excellent show.