You all are so sweet! Thank you for all for the your support and well-wishes!
To be honest; even this small, very low key event was a little intimidating to my introverted self. But what a great way to experience my first market.
I made enough money to cover the tiny booth fee, pay for lunch, gas, and take us to an after school movie - with popcorn. There were 13 tables in all, over half were first timers and very hobby-ish; hoping to sell enough items to pay for their hobby and make room in their garages so they can make more stuff.
We lamented at the lack of foot traffic; this was at a senior center and very few of them even acknowledge we were there. Most people were the family members dropping/picking up their elders, a few staff, a few service people. No one came just for the craft fair. (If you have any ideas on how to get more people to attend, please share them! The facility would really like this to become more of a community event. It's well advertised on their newsletter, but that only gets out to seniors. However the "hobby-ish" crafts themselves are a problem).
From now on, I will read all of your market descriptions with different eyes!! I experienced some of your frustrations: people who describe bar soap as "gross", assume the soap is made "all natural" , some were picking at the shrink wrap to open it, wanted to pay way less (I already lowered by a dollar per bar), one person tried to short me a buck. It was hard to not go "soap geek" on some of the comments.
Here's what surprised me:
1. I enjoyed it! I wouldn't want to do this every week.
2. The seniors really had no interest in handmade soap. They stopped at the gift basket vendor (very generic, dollar store, and just poorly done), a beginner woodworker, and talented crocheter tables. The woman with the nicely hand painted signs (welcome, nature, decorative types) didn't sell a single thing.
3. An 8 foot table isn't as big as it sounds! It was plenty big for me, but I only took 60 bars of soap, had no shelves. I filled the center with yellow mums, small sugar pumpkin and decorative fall placemat, then had cold process soap on one side, and salt bars on the other.
4. Real men really do love lavender.
A woman approached me and I could tell she had an agenda. Said, "is this your first event"" - and I knew something was up. Asked a few more pointed questions, handed me her card and said to email her some information. She has a small market twice a year and was looking for a soap maker as her current one is waffling.
One of the senior center's staff pulled me aside after the show ended; she wanted buy some soap but didn't want to do so in front of the other people as she'd feel like she'd have to buy from them too. She bought 6 bars!
My most fun sale? Another staff member just hurrying through the room stopped, read my sign, asked for the men's fragrances. Smelled them all, wasn't happy. I handed him a purple/green swirled bar and he smelled, said "Mmmmm….Bingo!" The scent? Double Lavender!!
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