I am doing 3 holiday craft shows in early Nov. The first one expects a "large crowd" although she wasn't sure how many they had in recent years. Just "a lot". The second, which is a 2-day craft show, said last year she had 2000 people!

I'm one of the few doing baked goods. I'm going to showcase my gift baskets. Do up samples and take orders. I'm working on getting licensed (that's another thread!).

My question is this - how much should I bring with me to sell that day? I MAINLY would like to take orders for the cookie/brownie gift baskets and do up some dummy cakes to showcase my work, but I should definitely sell some cupcakes/candies/cookies while I'm there. I have NO clue how much to bake. I'm scared of having too much or not enough. I'm really poor right now and I'm trying to make some extra money - so I can't waste a lot of money that I don't have. Although, this is the holiday season coming up, and it may be my big chance to make some extra money!

P.S. I've never been to a craft show!!!

Thanks!!!

I'm interested in this too. I've been offered a booth for a Christmas craft show at the end of November, but haven't yet decided whether I should do it. I wondered whether people really would place orders or whether they expect to take things home with them that day (no good for perishable Christmas gifts). I did wonder about making gingerbread houses, since they aren't for eating.
I will be watching to see if anyone has experience of this.
Natalie.

No one is replying - but my intuition is telling me that people will want to eat something there and then for themselves. Then once they taste it, they'll possibly decide to place an order for around Christmastime.

If I do up some spectacular holiday cakes (dummies), they may not even have to taste it, they may be wowed enough to place an order then and there.

I'm going to entice them by offering a discount on all orders placed with deposits paid that day. I think I have to grab them on impulse. If they have time to go home and think about it, they may decide on a different item and just forget about me altogether.

I don't know this for sure, so check for yourself...

Before you sell ANY food, I recommend checking with the local regulations for food sales, just like you would to get licensed. I know that there are a lot of things that are allowed to let slide for things like church bake sales, and small craft sales might fall into that category, but I know that the last Christmas/Holiday craft sale I did had specific rules for folks selling food... it had to meet NC Dept of Ag guidelines for re-sale.

Now, that might have just been the mall we were in, covering its legal butt, but I'd check in with the craft show coordinators, just to be sure. The last thing you want, especially if you're already poor (raising hand and joining you in that corner!) is to be a) denied the ability to sell your stuff, and b) to be slapped with a hefty fine for violating state laws.

Not saying don't do the show, I'm just saying that you might want to be sure you know what's what before you put time and money into doing something that might not pan out right this second.

That being said, I'm considering doing 'technically edible' holiday stuff for an upcoming show... sugar ornaments and small gingerbread houses and stuff like that... things that people could eat without killing them, but aren't meant to. (i have to change my product, because I was doing crocheted stuff, but the winters have been so mild, it just wasn't worth it here).

On the other hand, if you've already done all that and just want ideas...
* cookie bouquets
* cupcakes
* petit fours
* bar cookies
* small snackables that people can buy and eat as they're wandering. I can almost guarantee that they'll be back to buy more, once they have a taste of the little stuff.
* those cute little chocolate covered cherry mice... I can imagine moms buying those by the dozen for their kids to munch on.

The idea of the display cakes is a good one, too, but I'd personally want to offer a sample of what my cooking tastes like, in addition to showing the mad decorating skills.

Just my two cents! Please feel free to disregard any and all suggestions that you don't like! LOL

My experience is I never had enough. Once you put out samples people buy.

Thanks so much you guys!

I really appreciate it!

I'm offered a licensed kitchen at $10/hour. I think I'm going to pursue it. I don't want to have to worry about getting busted!!!

Amber

hey, if you can get a licensed kitchen, go for it! And make about three times what you think you'll need... I've never known good food to do badly at a show!

And take pictures of your set-up, when you've got it ready for the show... you'll want pictures of your first one, so that years from now, you'll have something to show how far you've come.

Doni in NC
<--- 6-year veteran of craft shows

I'm bumping this because I'm still having a hard time figuring out how much to make. They said last year, they had 2000 people. I don't want to count on 2000 again this year, should I count on like 1500? Or the full 2000? And then figure what? Half of the people will buy something? Or is that too much/too little. Please help!!! (The lady conducting the craft show wasn't very much help. I even asked her if she could put me in contact with someone who's done the show in the past. Maybe I'll ask again.)

I'm in the same boat.. Not sure how much to make. The Xmas show I'm doing is the largest one around. They get between 2000-3000 people over 2 days.
I'm going to offer decorated cookies in cello bags, cookie bouquets and was going to have a couple of dummy Xmas cakes on display.
Thinking that I would take orders for the cookie bouquets, cookies and cakes, but would have some for them to sample and some single cookies for people to buy on the spot.
Look forward to seeing what others have to say.

amber....what shows are you doing? i did warren woods last year

One is at St. Madonna Guild and one is at First United Presbytarian in Warren. How did it go for you when you did it??

Amber

I've been doing craft shows for probably 10 years now. Here's the way it goes around here. When I first started doing them, I would take decorated cookies, chocolate suckers, gingerbread houses, etc. I sold some of this kind of stuff but I always had alot leftover. What sells for me is the stuff that the people eat as they're wandering around the show. And they also buy something to take home for the kids and husband or wife, etc.
I mostly sell candy, like fudge, chocolate dipped pretzels, peanut brittle, buckeyes, cream horns, maybe cookies, or hot rolls, or cinnamon rolls, small pies.
I usually sell around 20 to 30 lbs of fudge, 50 or so bags of choc dipped pretzels, 300 or so cream horns. This is for a show that pulls in probably 1000 to 1200 people. I have noticed that the show here is not as well attended the past several years and people aren't spending money like they use to either. Last year, alot of the vendors said they wouldn't be back because they didn't sell enough to pay to be there.
Hope this helps.
MindyMc

Momacs,

I worked on my menu for the craft shows last night. Here is what I came up with.

I figured on half of the people buying something to eat there and then. Then I tried to figure percentages. Like, what percent would want a cookie, a candy or a brownie?

So I'm doing some molded chocolate pops (stocking stuffers/gift toppers) figuring SOME people might want those. But I'm only doing about 20 per show. I'm also doing 30 individually wrapped decorated sugar cookies. People can buy this stuff as gift toppers or eat them then and there. I figured the kids would go for the candy and the sugar cookies.

For eating that day, I'm doing brownies with and without nuts in chocolate and in mocha. Homemade peanut brittle. Homemade pralines. Large chocolate chip cookies 1/2 dipped in chocolate. Cupcakes and date bars (only 1 doz. date bars for one of the shows (thought I'd see how they go over)). I wanted to do things that aren't messy, easy to eat and can be taken home. I was figuring some people (cuz I do this, too when I'm out) would want to take one home for kids or the hubby.

Should I not do the sugar cookies and molded chocolate pops?

Also, I'm going to put up a big sign with my cookie tray prices and cookie basket prices and pie prices. I wasn't going to make pies that day. I didn't think they would sell. What do you think??

Thanks for your feedback. I really appreciate it! Do you think I'm on the right track figuring half will buy something? I figured since people are losing their jobs left and right around here, instead of counting on 2000 like they had last year, I'd only count on 1500. So I divided that in half.

Thanks again!!!
Amber

Hi Amber,
I think that amount of chocolate suckers and decorated cookies should probably sell with the amount of people that are expected. It's hard to know for sure, what works here might be totally different in your area. The brownies and cookies, and bars should sell fine. The sign is a good idea as well. I have eve sales that I make up brochures for. Thanksgiving eve, Christmas eve. I take order for pies, cinnamon rolls, hot rolls, cookies, candy etc. I hand these flyers out during the show for advertising. I use to do the newspaper ads but the flyer seems to work better, oh and direct mail. I mail out postcards to previous years customers to remind them about the eve sale.

Thanks, Momacs!

Thanks, Momacs!