Today’s weather was nasty, so between it and the economy today wasn’t a lot better than yesterday at the show. I mean, we only made ONE sale (a rather good one, to be sure) between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Wow, just wow. It did pick up between 3 p.m. and close at 5 p.m., but that wasn’t enough to make up for the lack of sales earlier.
In talking to the other vendors, I’d have to say that sales were universally bad. I know that Audrey wasn’t happy, not just because of the slow traffic and closed wallets. Apparently the Cobb Galleria management told the wonderful “Miss Daisy,” she of the morning coffee and muffins and the afternoon HANDMADE CHOCOLATE TREATS that they “couldn’t” allow her there. Audrey, to her credit, promptly bought all of Daisy’s inventory and shared it with us vendors — props to her!
It’s not that people don’t appreciate and like our work for the most part. We heard the usual compliments and admiration. I did overhear one woman say to her husband that our work was nice but just cost too much; a couple of others were asking for discounts even though they were buying just a few little beads. I just figure that those people may not “get” the distinction between the mass-market importers, who will wheel and deal because they have substantial margins, and the artisans making one-of-a-kind items on rather slim margins with no real wiggle room. Plus there are the “Wal-Mart mentality” folks who aren’t happy unless they can get a bargain…but those people aren’t our target customer base anyway.
It’s very hard to keep up a good attitude under such a trying situation, but we did our best. We kept the snarky remarks between ourselves and a few other vendor-friends. Buying silly fleece hats, mine a blue camo cat-eared one and Andrea’s a leopard cat-eared one, from our friend Tara Roberts and wearing them all day helped. We weren’t the only ones, either. Sylvie had a tiger-striped one, and at one point I saw the Chinese man that I sometimes buy findings from in a red devil-ears hat! As we said to several people, “ALL the cool kids are wearing them today!”
I also made a second multicolor open roundmaille bracelet while we sat there, so I can say that I have open roundmaille down pat. I’ll photograph those and get them up on 1000 Markets or ArtFire soon for someone looking for a great holiday gift for someone special.