Events, Discussions and Reviews - Nov 6-7

[davejs]

What are you doing?

[davejs]

I believe that I am going to be doing the San Jose Holiday Faire at the Flea Market (still there). I originally was considering DeAnza, but I would prefer a two-day event. It is a bit slow at the event, but the price is good.

There used to be a Holiday Faire at the Orinda Community Center but it is now defunct because the locals do not support it. We last did it around 3-4 years ago and many vendors had zero days there and did not come back the following year and the show went belly-up.

[laptoo]

Good luck in San Jose, Dave. I did that Orinda show 3 Novembers ago, it was terrible. I sold 5 items in 2 days. My own cousin lives in Orinda, and had never been to the show before I coerced her into coming to it to see me. Laura

[davejs]

I did that show 3 times over the years and I think we may have been here together with you. Me (and Mark also) were outside in the plaza or concourse and we thought that was a good location. These people put forth a lot of effort for the event and it is shameful that the Orindindians, Lafayetters, East Bayers, Concordians, Walnut Creekers, Oaklanders did not support the event. The foot traffic in the plaza area consisted of people going back and forth to the library, coffee drinkers and joggers and walkers. There were vendors there who had zero sales one or both days. We died out there. Beautiful weather, especially for a November weekend.

Anyhow, they had the show again the following year and since I happened to be 'off' I decided to drive by there and there were no booths in the plaza area and just 4-5 in front of the door and steps. The following year, they went 'defuncto.' What a shame. This event raised funds for a number of non-profits and some of them were organizations which these people who did not attend were part of. How times have changed. BTW booth fees were reasonable but we took chances being outside where the weather elements can come into play. Too hard for us to haul our stuff inside and it was quite difficult bringing our stuff up the 7-8 steps to the plaza. There were year's where they allowed vehicles to drive up onto the plaza.

Anyway, this was another of those shows that you thought you could do decently in, especially with great sunny weather. Surprise, surprise, surprise. Golllllllllyyyyy!

[laptoo]

Dave - Your story doesn't surprise me at all, but I'm sorry you did badly there, also. I should have known something was up as the promoters had me send my application and check to their p.o. box, and then when I hadn't heard anything, I called them. I was told "Oh, we haven't used that p.o. box for a long time. You should have sent it directly to XYZ St., etc. I told them that they probably had dozens of applications just sitting in the P.O., and someone should be checking that box. Sheesh! L

[mark]

I remember Orinda well think i did the show three times and the 1st time i was lucky and made a few bucks.... the next two years sucked.

[davejs]

Beautiful weather on Saturday; pretty ugly on Sunday. Inside at the Pavilion at the San Jose Flea Market.

The dooziest of the doozies; the worst of the worst. A bit of a crowd on Saturday and much less on Sunday. Big difference over the two days in weather and crowds but still lousy sales both days. This show absolutely sucked. Some vendors made a little bit but most of us had few sales over the two days. Fell asleep many times. Vendors leaving early on Sunday.

You can read my review:

www.starvingvendors.com/events_San_Jose_Holiday_Crafters_Faire_2010.html

[mark]

I just finshed the Santa Teresa High School Craft Fair-In San Jose-Sat there was hardly any traffic because there was a Football Game there and they took all the parking and left none for the Craft Fair.I was told they had it handled they were only going to allow people going to the Craft Fair to park there ....Yea sure at 10am the lot was full and we hardly had any people?wonder where the other people are?let me think hummm .well it wasn't the worst i ever have done but it was far from good if they handled the parking like they should have the vendors would have done half way decent.

[davejs]

Nov 8, 2010 17:32:25 GMT -5 mark said:

I just finshed the Santa Teresa High School Craft Fair-In San Jose-Sat there was hardly any traffic because there was a Football Game there and they took all the parking and left none for the Craft Fair.I was told they had it handled they were only going to allow people going to the Craft Fair to park there ....Yea sure at 10am the lot was full and we hardly had any people?wonder where the other people are?let me think hummm .well it wasn't the worst i ever have done but it was far from good if they handled the parking like they should have the vendors would have done half way decent.

Didn't they do this last year also? They need to rope off an area to be used for those heading for the craft show only. Maybe at least 20 spaces, but that's still not a lot. But then again, how would you keep away those going to the football game. We know that a lot of them act like animals out there.

[mark]

YES Dave, the same thing happened last year and yes they should have ropped off the parking lot and only let in people coming for the craft fair but that didn't happen and the vendors.... had poor sales cause the traffic was low.....