A Trader Bucks opened here in Logansport, Indiana. We were so excited because we had decided to get a booth and become a vendor. The idea had been that this year we would finally get some inventory built up and start doing the craft shows. However, with husky in tow this was going to become more complicated. Having a stationary booth in a building was the answer. We would not need to sit there all day, no loading up, driving, setting up, packing up, driving home and repeat that for as many days as a show went on. The reality has been, complicated, and not worth the time or money we put in.
We had about a week to get everything together and a booth fully setup. That wasn’t on them that was us. We didn’t plan it out and prepare. That being said we got it done and were very happy with how it was coming together. Each week we were adding new things and doing more work on the setup. The idea was that if you keep adding new things then people always have a reason to stop by your booth. Plus you keep track of what is selling and you restock those things. That first month went very well, we thought.
We like that each night you get an email from the manager telling you what sold that day. This was a different experience from another store where we had products at. We had to contact them to find out if we had sold anything, we might actually still have a check waiting there for us. They also handle collecting the taxes, they charge 6% fee on each sale and this is on top of your monthly rental, and if someone uses a credit card they tack on an additional 4% charge to you. This is all very up front and they tell you to price your merch accordingly.
We have done the craft/maker/art shows and they are exhausting. It was so hot out one year that a set of Halo foam armor that we made came apart at the seams because the glue melted. The act of packing and schlepping from your car to your allotted spot gets old. If we decide to do these again we might look for indoor events where you can safely leave your merch overnight. We are also talking about making a trailer so that we can pack everything up in that and haul it to and from the spot. Maybe even something that can open and be used to display and sell from then fold back up to take home.
The cost of our little vendor booth is $155.00 per month. If you sell they deduct that from your next months fee before writing you a check. Our first month we made more than our next months rent. We still have not received a check for the balance. While we made more than rent we did not recoup the cost of materials or time. It was still fun and it gave us a reason to keep pushing and creating.
There are no times after the opening that a vendor can come in and work without the store being open to the public. At first I didn’t think this would be a problem. Then the reality hit. I can walk in there with boxes and walk out with boxes and nobody says anything. Maybe they recognize me as a vendor, maybe. You might ask why this is a bad thing, well I could walk into any booth and load up a box and just walk right out with all the free merch I want. Plus right in the front of the store is a big setup of “mystery box’s” which is fine except these people use dollies to stock. They will run you over, they block the aisles while they are stocking and they hit the vendor booth wall behind them so hard that they knock his merch off the wall. Plus vendors are always parking in front of the building which then blocks the drive in the parking lot and the front door.
The inside has a variety of sized booths and people are selling everything from ball gowns, to flea market merch, to antiques. Your client base is pretty wide. The building was a Marsh grocery store that had been sitting vacant for a number of years after Marsh pulled out of town, closing down both of their locations. It sits between two one way streets that get a lot of traffic and the parking lot is almost always full. It’s a little difficult to tell how much of that is customer and how much is vendor/staff but there are always cars there.
So why are we leaving after less than two months? The first sign of what could be a problem was we were credited with a sale of merchandise that was not ours. We let them know and to date they have not removed that sale money from our account. It was a small amount, only $10, but it wasn’t ours. Problem is nobody knew whose booth that money belonged to so it just stayed on our account. This has only happened once so far but it still put up a red flag. Especially since we never heard back from anyone that they were even looking into it or that they were sorry it happened or any kind of explanation of how it happened.
Each vendor is responsible for their own booth, cleaning it, keeping it set up, making sure you have merch to sell, etc… Initially we thought no big deal, that makes sense. Then we lived the reality of it. We would go into the booth and the shelves were all goofy, things pulled off, packages opened, stuff knocked down. We have a table in the entry where we put business cards and seasonal sale items. We find garbage on the table, jewelry, hats, merch from other vendors’ booths, and other random items.
Even with all this we knew going in we were not going to get rich we were having fun and we covered the cost of the booth plus maybe the cost of materials we would be happy and we would give it a year to see how it goes. So why pull out now? Because of the theft. Bill went in last night to put more merch in the store and that’s when he discovered that in less than two weeks we had lost hundreds of dollars of merch. He had just done a number of pens because they had been selling, all but two had been stolen. We talked about it last night and as much fun as it’s been it’s not fun when you are buying materials, spending your time making things only to have them stolen and there isn’t anything we can do about it. The store does not take responsibility and unless we are going to go sit in the booth from opening to closing seven days a week we can’t stop it. After a long walk in the woods last night we came home and emailed them telling them we are not staying that we will pay through May, because you have to give them 30 days notice, but we are leaving and we told them why we are leaving. So far no reply.
Today I will go in and start clearing out merch. Bill had asked if I wanted to give it till end of May since we have to pay for that. I told him no, I feel no need to leave things there just to have them stolen. We went from making over $200 the first month to $11 the next. Part of that is we no longer have pool cues to sell which seemed to be the hottest item. But the other part is people are taking the five finger discount. It could also be that someone picked up a pen and then laid it down in another booth. If they left our tag on and it gets sold then we will be credited. If the took our tag off then who knows what will happen with it because your tag with your booth number is the only identifier so that you get the sale credit.
How do we feel? Upset, disappointed with humanity and a little bit disillusioned. We are also really glad we took the chance. It was fun stepping out of our comfort zone, pulling a store front together, making things to keep the inventory up and offer new things to the public. We also enjoyed being able to offer things to people at prices that were low enough to allow everyone to find something especially in today’s economy. Even given how it turned out I would still take the chance again. It got us to talking and we will try other ideas for being able to offer the things we make. Maybe a store front here on the website, maybe taking them to local businesses or doing those shows. The long and short of it is don’t be afraid to try. I’m not sure I would try with this company in this town again unless they figure security out. Maybe in other towns it’s different. Maybe once they have been open for a bit longer they will figure it out here in Logansport. Meanwhile I don’t feel like becoming the free to the world charity that our booth seems to represent to our community.
