Post by davejs on Jul 3, 2009 9:37:14 GMT -5
I have sold here a few times a couple years ago. This plaza iust is located two blocks from City Hall and is a main thoroughfare for office workers, tourists, drug addicts, etc.
At one time I heard that this was an excellent place to sell your things on Mon, Thurs and Fri as they would have more than 100 booths spread out. Unfortunately I got in when it had dwindled down to around 40 booths. You would get there around 8:00AM and park in your selling space. They would set up a canopy for you, which had it's pros and cons. Sales were rather slow for everybody when I did the show. The city ended up taking the show away from the lady in charge and started it up again.
I considered returning, but I dropped by one Thursday afternoon and it was pretty much dead at 1:30. Talked to vendors and they said it was terrible. Now, they force you to get a city license even if you are only doing one show and there's just too much B.S. involved.
There were many problems. You have a homeless encamptment in the area and many of them walk through the show and you really have to keep your eyes on them. You can never ever leave your booth unatteneded.
Major bathroom problems. At one time many moons ago, they did have a porta-potty on site and they charged vendors extra for it. I heard that was okay with the vendors. Now, you have three places to go. Carls Jr and you usually have to wait in line for it. It's on Market Street and a lot of people head for it. There's one of those 'modern' French type toilets about a block away and that's where a lot of heroin addicts go to shoot up or homies catch some sleep. And of course, there's the library where it's a couple blocks away.
So, all that deters me from ever doing the show again. We all would just love to have good shows during the week, but not this one. In addition, you have to deal with the weather. The wind blows right down the runway and you have cloudy weather very often. If you do it during the early part of the winter, things can get extremely ugly. You can show a profit but it is miniscule.
At one time I heard that this was an excellent place to sell your things on Mon, Thurs and Fri as they would have more than 100 booths spread out. Unfortunately I got in when it had dwindled down to around 40 booths. You would get there around 8:00AM and park in your selling space. They would set up a canopy for you, which had it's pros and cons. Sales were rather slow for everybody when I did the show. The city ended up taking the show away from the lady in charge and started it up again.
I considered returning, but I dropped by one Thursday afternoon and it was pretty much dead at 1:30. Talked to vendors and they said it was terrible. Now, they force you to get a city license even if you are only doing one show and there's just too much B.S. involved.
There were many problems. You have a homeless encamptment in the area and many of them walk through the show and you really have to keep your eyes on them. You can never ever leave your booth unatteneded.
Major bathroom problems. At one time many moons ago, they did have a porta-potty on site and they charged vendors extra for it. I heard that was okay with the vendors. Now, you have three places to go. Carls Jr and you usually have to wait in line for it. It's on Market Street and a lot of people head for it. There's one of those 'modern' French type toilets about a block away and that's where a lot of heroin addicts go to shoot up or homies catch some sleep. And of course, there's the library where it's a couple blocks away.
So, all that deters me from ever doing the show again. We all would just love to have good shows during the week, but not this one. In addition, you have to deal with the weather. The wind blows right down the runway and you have cloudy weather very often. If you do it during the early part of the winter, things can get extremely ugly. You can show a profit but it is miniscule.