Upcoming Community Craft Fair

This year, 11/7, I've organized a small community Craft Fair in our senior mobile home park clubhouse. Ours is a nice community, not wealthy but not the poorest - sort of middle-of-the-road. We have over 430 households.

The problem is that they are also very, very private. We have a hard time getting them to join in events. Back in 2005, we had a lot of traffic to a similar event here. That was the last time. In a senior community, there is always a lot of turnover. Sometimes it is because of health, or passing of a spouse, or decrease in income, or because they want to be closer to loved ones in another state now that they are older. No matter. I am praying that turnover has been sufficient to pull some of our own residents to the Fair.

Meanwhile, I will also place a classified in our local newspaper, and put out some online ads in places like Craigslist.

We can accommodate 15 tables and still have room for visitors to walk around and browse. We already have 7 sold. I ran online ads asking for more. It is important for visitors to see lots of "stuff" on the tables and at least a dozen vendors. This seems to get them into a buying mood.

I also encourage our vendors to go for both low-end ($1) and high-end items. In today's economy, there is no way of knowing what someone will buy. I'd rather sell 50-$1 items than depend solely on $50 items which they might not buy.

There's no point to this post. It is simply a sharing. I'll post after that sale and let you know what the buying climate is like, at least here where I am.