Farmer's Market Run Down...

Hubby selling at his little stall :)

I'm happy to report that we had a good turn out for our first event!

It was really funny setting up next to the other vendors because we only had one table and all our supplies fit in a small box with wheels and it literally took us 20 minutes to set up (including the EZ up) and it took everyone else a good hour and a half plus. We also have no idea how long it took everyone to tear down because SCB was gone 15 minutes after they closed up the market to shoppers.

What's also funny, the other vendors didn't move much product at all and I think we sold more then then anyone else (but we weren't sure about the Jewelry lady cause SCB didn't talk to her).

Pen in progress!

We ended up selling 7 pens (he had 10 made) and one letter opener (it matched a pen and sold as a set). We were surprised that the bottle openers didn't sell at all and we thought they would sell better then most items since we live in Orange County and people like to drink so we were a little bummed since SCB had made 7 of them and none of them sold. They were also priced $5 more than the pens because the materials cost more then the pen kits, so they may have been just too high. He also made 7 letter openers as well and other then the one set that sold, people weren't too interested in those. We may have to try and lower the price if they don't sell next month just to get our initial money back from them and drop them as a product item. The other possibility it to do matching pens and pencil sets with the letter openers and try and sell them as "executive packages or sets."

We were REALLY glad we had set up the SQUARE account to collect Credit Card transactions because only one person paid in cash. With pens at $15.00 a piece and the letter opener that went for $20.00 so we sold $125.00 in merchandise before the sales tax we collected (so we collected $134.69). Which isn't so bad for our first showing and about 4 hour of sales on the first weekday they offered arts and craft vendors (Word hasn't really gotten out yet). As Summer rolls around the corner I think more people will come out to the market and we might be able to tempt more people.

We spent $20 for the stall, $3.25 in credit card transaction fees, and will be remitting $9.69 back to California for sales tax, so we walked away with $101.75.

Most of these items weren't actually sold
at the market, and went to friends as gifts...
but it gives you an idea of some of the stuff
he makes :)

With Graduation and Father's Day around the corner we are going to take the gamble and apply to be a vendor next month to see if Friday's success was a fluke or not.

Since all the really nice pens sold, we are going to pour our profits from this last sale back into the business and order more supplies and focus on pens. Additionally we are going to order some wine corkscrews and bottle stopper combo sets to see if that resonates with the public better that the standard bottle openers. If we can't move these items at the next farmers market we can always gift them to friends for Christmas and we can always donate some to Child Share to put with their silent auction items (Booze Baskets and Walls of Wine are always large sellers with them and those products would compliment them and give us some business exposure.) We might also be able to sell some items for them in November to some really high end lifestyle people who have lots of money!