[Nfb-krafters-korner] Selling at craft markets

Tue Mar 13 12:50:56 UTC 2012

I sell jewelry and knitted accessories. I no longer do "craft shows" but I 
do some higher end "Holiday Markets."  The ones I do now are set up boutique 
style where the customers show the entire show, then bring the things they 
wish to purchase to the "check out" area where it is sold and bagged for 
them. This works perfect for a blind person because you do not stay at your 
area, other than to come in a replenish the stock.  A much better clientelle 
visites this type of market, and you get much better prices.

I did do craft shows for quite a few years. I soon learned that shows held 
in churches, fire halls, and schools are typically very low end ones and 
flooded with tons of people there to have lunch and visit, but not to buy. 
And, they are not discriminate about how many vendors they have selling a 
particular thing. ie, they may have a dozen tables of jewelry vendors - 
which means very little sales for any of them.

I do only one show now in which I am there at my booth the whole time. It is 
in a museum, so again, the clientelle is much better and they are really 
there to buy nice things.

I always have a family member at my booth with me.
I am alone at times when they take a bathroom break, and after doing this 
many times for the four years I have been without sight, I am always quite 
nervous.
There is no way anyone would know I am blind at all. Even after I say so, 
they are skeptical about it. I look them in the eye, and I engage with them 
through gestures as I always did before. There is nothing about me that 
reads "blind" unless they saw me walking in with my cane.

Customers always say "over there" "that one" "this one" the "pink one" etc. 
That is the normal way for a person who can see to designate things and they 
have no idea that we cannot know what they mean. They are really clueless 
about blindness - I sure was! I understand this.

Here is what I do that helps though:
I put a  clearly marked  price tag is on every item.
If they ask the price, I hand it to them and say, "Here, you can see the 
price on the tag." I also put any other pertinent information on the tag - I 
use large tags so it is very CLEAR to them.
Money? I have the bills put in an order that is always the same. I use only 
bills and never have any change. This eliminates a very big worry.

 I never price anything with "cents" involved. Everything with only 
"dollars" this way the item is $5. or $10. etc.  You can back the taxes off 
of the price after you get home.  When you do your pricing, just round it UP 
to the next dollar amount. This has saved me so much worries. This way you 
need never worry about making change with those coins.

You can get a money ID thing for your bills. I have an ID PacMate that reads 
bar codes so you can even make bar codes for your items which is pretty 
cool.

Any time I sell things that are different colors, I put them in "Roy G. Biv" 
order. In fact, everything I can put into that order in my own house - all 
my jewelry is in Roy G. Biv order. Roy G. Biv means Red, Orange, Yellow, 
Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.  In my home I have plexiglas containers that 
are tall. Each one has a lid, and each one holds one color of necklaces. 
They are in Roy G. Biv order on my dresser. No worries about what color I am 
getting, if it is kept in order.
Another special container holds all my earrings in this order, too. I found 
a wonderful Earring Box on Home Shopping Network. It holds 72 pairs of 
earrings. All in order and easy for me to find just what I am looking for.

I do know that some people will definitely cheat you if given the 
opportunity. If I had not had my daughter with me to watch the transactions, 
there were some times when I would have given a person change for a $20. 
when she really gave me a $10. and the person stood there waiting for the 
change. My daughter saw it happening and ran over to clue me in. Also, teen 
age girls come into your booth in groups and they are there to steal - one 
engages you in conversation while the firends are stealing. This happens a 
lot at outdoor festivals. I cannot imagine being in the booth alone without 
some watchful eyes to watch the crowd - especially when you sell jewelry. It 
is small and very easily slid off the table into a tote bag even when a 
person CAN see well.

Those would be my most important tips after about 10 years of doing arts 
festivals, craft shows, and markets.

Lynda River Woman
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lindy van der Merwe" <stephlin at iafrica.com>
To: "List for blind crafters and artists" <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 3:03 AM
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Selling at craft markets

> Hi there,
> To those who sell at craft markets, I was wondering about a few things.
> 1 Do any of you manage a stall or a table on your own, or do you usually 
> have someone there to help?
> 2 If you do it on your own, how do you answer the questions: how much is 
> this? or I'd like to take this ... or Do you have change for this?
> 3 How do you handle sorting and exchanging paper money?
> I had my first experience with selling at a stall last Saturday and these 
> were some of the aspects I had to deal with.
> I don't think it is immediately obvious that I am blind, which did make 
> for some awkward situations, I thought.
> Perhaps there may be some obvious answers to some of these questions, or 
> perhaps I just need some practice with being more comfortable in dealing 
> with strangers in that type of setting?
> I know it will be most helpful to have prices on either the products or on 
> the containers they reside in, but it just felt like people related to me 
> using gestures a lot of the time, which obviously made communication 
> somewhat difficult and even though I wanted to respond in a confident 
> manner, I found it quite challenging at times.
> Any ideas and thoughts would be much appreciated.
> Lindy
>
>
> Find PRACTICAL PRODUCTS on FACEBOOK: 
> http://www.facebook.com/practicalproducts
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <Blindhands at aol.com>
> To: <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 5:28 AM
> Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Looking for volunteers
>
>
>>I am looking for teachers to teach the classes.  Do you know or are  you
>> interested in teaching any of these suggested classes?  I need 
>> volunteers to
>> teach.
>>
>> Heads up we hopefully will be having an email class with an Origami 
>> project
>> in  the near future.    I will do a soap class and a sewing  class, but I
>> am busy with kicking off my new craft business.   I am  not sure if I can
>> fit classes in that I will teach between now and middle of  July.  I have 
>> 4
>> holidays between now and then to fill orders.   Hopefully I am putting 
>> St.
>> Patty's Day Wild Irish Roses to bed maybe by  tomorrow.  I have 100 in 
>> reserve
>> for my Irish Bar that is selling soo many  of them.  I spent the last 2 
>> days
>> working on Easter ones to get a head  start.  I will know on Wednesday if
>> they need any more St. Patty's Day  ones.
>>
>> We need to wait for the Latch Hook class to be finished before we start a
>> new email class.  I want to only do one at a time email class for now,
>> until we work any problems out.
>>
>> So think about what you can teach, host a chat night  topic.    I will be
>> there to help with what YOU do.
>>
>> Krafters Korner is for everyone and everyone makes Krafters Korner what 
>> it
>> is!
>> Joyce  Kane
>> _www.KraftersKorner.org_ (http://www.krafterskorner.org/)
>> Blindhands at AOL.com
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
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>
>
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