The Tackiest People Encounters Of Craft Fairs

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work at a craft fair? Well. let me tell you, it’s not fun or glamorous, but the tacky people can sometimes be entertaining! I am a jewelry artist and a stay-at-home mom. Three years ago I started my own business called Feminine Flair Jewelry and began selling my handmade jewelry to friends and family. That was going well and I was receiving many compliments, so I thought, why not expand into craft fairs? I will tell you now that you can always make more money at home parties and have more fun than at any craft fair.

The negatives of craft fairs are that they attract people who are tacky and cheap. Now, I am not talking about quality art fairs, art shows put on by artists’ organizations (I belonged to the Leavenworth Artists’ Association in Leavenworth, KS and they have several profitable and fun shows a year), ladies’ night out (these are usually profitable), or holiday shows where people are shopping for Christmas gifts. I am speaking specifically right now about your average, small town fairs and craft fairs. If you think that it would be fun to rent a booth at one of these for your home business, let me let you in on a few things to consider first. Your day starts out at about 5 a.m. when you get up, load up your car with all your folding tables, merchandise and food for the day, and drive to the town where the fair is going to be. Then, you have to unload your stuff in all kinds of weather (I’ve been rained on, snowed on, and had 100 degree heat), and drag it a few blocks from the parking lot designated for vendors to your actual assigned spot. Sometimes you don’t even have an assigned spot and it’s first come, first served, which is even worse. While you are setting up all your merchandise, you are usually dealing with other vendors who are sleep deprived and grouchy.

I usually try to do all this with a smile on my face because according to my 6-yr-olds’ book about the human body, it takes 19 muscles in your face to smile and 43 to frown! Sometimes others appreciate my positiveness and it gets them in a better mood too, but for those Ultra Oscar the Grouch types, this seems to make them even madder. Well, usually when they find out I have more unique and original jewelry designs at cheaper prices than their run-of-the-mill stuff they don’t like me anyway.

After all your equipment is set up, you usually sit there for 2 to 3 hours before your first sale occurs. This is because most of these po-dunk fairs require you to be there way earlier than anyone would actually show up to shop. By the time the first round of customers start showing up, you usually have to pee really bad! At this point, you have two choices, leave all your stuff there to seek out the nearest port-a-potty, or hold it. I usually opt for hold it. This is the brakes of working at these festivals while leaving the kids with your husband…you are alone to deal with it all. Very rarely did it work out for either my husband or someone else in my family to show up to relieve me (literally!). After 2 years, I learned to not drink so much coffee and in fact, that it was better to just not eat or drink all day at all and hit the nearest fast food joint on the way home. One time I sat outside all day at the Amelia Earhart Festival in Atchison, Kansas when it was 115 degree heat index outside and my gazebo broke. Not only was I thirsty, hot and sunburned, but I didn’t have anything to eat all day. Luckily, I sweated so much, that at least I didn’t have to pee.

Imagine going through all this physical discomfort while the whole time watching out for potential shoplifters, making polite small talk, waiting on the customers who are actually interested in your products, listening for your cell phone in case the babysitter calls, and dreading the end when you have to spend about an hour loading it all back into your car. The whole thing turns out to be about a 15 hour day.

The most money I ever made in 1 day at an outside festival was $450. Now, subtract retail tax, booth fees (the better fairs are $100), supplies used in manufacturing the items you sold, the time it took to make the items, gas, food along the road, any babysitting fees and ask yourself “Was that worth it?” I almost always at least broke even, but once I had to pay the babysitter more than I actually made in profit and that wasn’t counting if I had been paying myself for time. I basically didn’t make any money for the time I had spent making the jewelry I actually sold.

Now let me tell you about the positives of home parties:

First off, you don’t have any set-up fees or booth fees or fees of advertising the home party. The person whose house it is at usually gladly exchanges their time, use of their home, and food at the party in exchange for free jewelry as hostess gifts. This is a win-win situation for everyone because if you give the hostess something really great to wear, she will invite more people to your jewelry party, and any compliment she receives on the jewelry she is wearing will be free word of mouth advertising. I usually print out invitations from my computer for the hostess to distribute to all her friends. Also, everyone who attends the party will be someone who is either actually interested in your products or is obligated to buy something because so-and-so came to one of their home parties and bought something. Isn’t peer pressure great?

All a home party costs you as the merchant is your time and some gifts for the hostess. Also, I usually offer a prize for a drawing if people put their contact information in the fishbowl.

The second really great positive of a home party is it is MORE FUN! One time, someone had a jewelry party for me on Cinco de Mayo and served Sangria and Margaritas. It was really fun and I sold a lot of jewelry. They were all nice people that I already knew or enjoyed meeting. The conversation and the food was great and it was in a really nice house instead of outside at a mosquito ridden craft fair. I have gotten to know many people better by simply being in their home and having a chance to talk with them one-on-one. Also, many people enjoy shopping for stuff like jewelry where it is a more layed back atmosphere and they can actually try the items on at their leisure. These are the people that actually come to like not just your products but you also, especially if you have excellent customer service skills, and will be repeat customers for you during holidays. People come to home parties intending to socialize and buy things-not just to look so they can make it themselves later. In my experience, you can sell more jewelry at a 2 hour home party than you would sitting outside at a fair all day.

Now, I will conclude by telling you the funniest and tackiest things that ever happened to me at outside fairs in case you think you are still considering them:

*Festivals with lots of rides and kid oriented activities don’t result in sales…they result in fanny-pack toting, stroller pushing parents who don’t buy anything and just came to spend time with their kids. And personally, when I take my kids out for 4th of July or any family-oriented festivals, that’s what I came to do-spend time with my kids-and I don’t shop either.

*One time a magician kept coming to my booth for the purposes of flirting with my sister all day. He was so corny and aggressive with one magic trick after another, he actually deterred people from my booth. Others were afraid to come under my gazebo for fear of being roped into some ridiculous trick.
This was at the Merriam Turkey Creek Arts and Crafts Festival in Merriam, Kansas.

*One time a woman wearing a huge and tacky plastic flower brooch asked me if she could “commission a bracelet” for herself. I’m quite certain I wouldn’t have been able to make anything tacky enough for her liking and I might also add, my bracelets were $10…not profitable enough to bother with any “custom orders” on a lower end item like that.

*Some people at craft fairs are cheap and will try to either look at yourself to steal your ideas and make it themselves, or barter with you. I once had someone ask if they could pay me $5 for earrings I already had marked at $6. I told them that a craft fair isn’t a garage sale and that I thought my prices were already low enough. Then she took out 6 dollars and paid. I thought to myself “if she had the $6 why did she offer $5? Just to see if she could get away with it?” Or then, there’s my favorite line when someone looks at your jewelry and leans over and says to their shopping companion “We can make this.” That is just plain rude. Then there are the people who want $5 worth of gift wrap for a $5 item. I am there to make money, not provide a community service.

*The tackiest award ever goes to someone who was shopping at my booth at the Spring Arts and Craft Fair in my hometown of Lawrence, Kansas. “Can I buy your silver hoop earrings without the bead work?” the rudo asked. I smiled, said “sure” and removed all my beads from the hoops. Wrapped them up and charged her the amount it costs me for a whole package at my wholesale price for the one pair. I figured if she was that rude and stupid, it was her loss. It was insulting and she was probably going to make her own project out of them, but oh well, it was still money in my pocket.

*There have also been people who smoked inside my gazebo, let their dogs stick their front paws on my white table cloths, threw things away in my personal trash can like stinky food that drew flies, asked if they could use my cell phone, or tried to sell me some tacky product of theirs-like a toilet paper holder covered with a towel and fake flowers…and then there was the guy with knock-off sunglasses who kept hitting on my sister.

I am currently trying to have a website. So far, it is not near as successful as home parties either, but look me up in a year and I’ll give you my opinion. Or look up my jewelry designs at [http://www.feminineflairjewelry.com]

Emily Foster

Jewelry Designer and Owner of Feminine Flair Jewelry

[http://www.feminineflairjewelry.com]

Tacoma, WA

Created and written by Emily Foster, Jewelry Artisan/Designer and owner of Feminine Flair Jewelry, [http://www.feminineflairjewelry.com]

The Tackiest People Encounters Of Craft Fairs

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