So, back home again, after a weekend of vending at the Ghost Conference.
As always, "the day after" is dedicated to organizing all the show bins because stuff invariably gets misplaced and unless that's dealt with immediately, it ends up just sliding away and subsequently ends up as frustration fandango next time we're at an event.
Although it was a most enjoyable event, actual sales declined 30% from last year. Not sure whether that was because people simply weren't opening their wallets (I saw almost nobody carrying bags or packages) or because our space was sort of tucked away in a back corner... or something completely different... I do not know. Could also be that there really wasn't any scheduled "vendor time;" with each presentation barely having a 5 minute break before the next one started. When people were supposed to shop is a bit of a mystery to me.
Not going to make excuses or rationalizations, but it was a disappointing start to the holiday season events.
At least the weather stayed dry during both load-in and load-out, which is always a blessing. Nothing like coming home with a bunch of wet bins and bags to put a damper on the mood!
On the upside, I did sell several of the new painted crystal pieces, so that was a nice boost.
As per usual, there was plenty of positive feedback, which is always nice... people do like the work!
Also on the upside, my wife's presentation — she was one of the speakers — went well and was attended by about 35-40 people, and I overheard several conversations saying that hers was the "best of show."
For grins, I recently went into our accounting program and brought up a list of all shows and corresponding sales totals since the very first events we went to, in the early 10's.
Although we keep saying that "things are getting better," we are still far below the number of sales and typical show results we would get "pre-Covid." In fact, we have a good 30-40% to go... and I have my doubts as to whether that will actually happen, with people having gotten so trained to both TEMU and online shopping in general.
It sounds a bit fatalistic to suggest that hand made arts and crafts are a "dying industry," but I just don't see a whole lot of positive indicators, and I find that both sad and a little alarming.
But enough about that!
Now I need to "reset" and work towards our next event during the first weekend of December. There are still gaping holes in the inventory, and they need to be filled... both to make a for good show, as well as to have a full representation in the online shops.
Onwards!
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2024.11.11 AS-TXT-292/262