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- Location
- Constantine, MI
Last night my daughter-in-law Kelly and I shared a vendor booth at The Village at Meridian's open air concert series, "Rock the Village". It was a great experience if not a profitable one. We had lots of people stop by and admire our wares but not enough of them turned into customers.
The evening started out on the scary side with the weather radar showing very strong thunder storms to our south and the weather service issuing flash flood warnings for both counties south of our position. Strong winds made the set up of our canopy a bit of an adventure and it must have been obvious to any observer that we were rank amatures at this!
Eventually we got everything set up and we're open for business. There was a tremendous number of people there. Thousands attend these events that feature different performers each Friday evening during the summer.
We entertained lots of very nice people but noticed lots of people stopping outside the booth and gazing in. As we watched the traffic at nearby booths we noticed that those with their product pushed out to the front of the booth were engaging more people in conversation about their products. We realized that there must be a certain psychological 'commitment' to coming into a booth that many were not willing to make. So, next week we will be arranging things differently and see if our sales improve!
Oddly enough, this fellow on the other side of the courtyard selling toilet paper holders and dog food cabinets was selling and had already made back the cost of the space for the four weeks he will be there!
The evening started out on the scary side with the weather radar showing very strong thunder storms to our south and the weather service issuing flash flood warnings for both counties south of our position. Strong winds made the set up of our canopy a bit of an adventure and it must have been obvious to any observer that we were rank amatures at this!
Eventually we got everything set up and we're open for business. There was a tremendous number of people there. Thousands attend these events that feature different performers each Friday evening during the summer.
We entertained lots of very nice people but noticed lots of people stopping outside the booth and gazing in. As we watched the traffic at nearby booths we noticed that those with their product pushed out to the front of the booth were engaging more people in conversation about their products. We realized that there must be a certain psychological 'commitment' to coming into a booth that many were not willing to make. So, next week we will be arranging things differently and see if our sales improve!
Oddly enough, this fellow on the other side of the courtyard selling toilet paper holders and dog food cabinets was selling and had already made back the cost of the space for the four weeks he will be there!