The Cactus Planter Sale

[CactusPots]

I had my one 2 day retail sale the 1st and 2nd of June.  This isn't a normal craft show, but a plant sale by the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society in Balboa Park.   Crazy amount of traffic/sales.  The club runs 8 cash registers, all items bar code and scanned. CC at every register.  Normally a 45 minute checkout line.  It's primarily a plant sale, but there were 17 potters of 42 vendors this year.  The club runs the registers, collects and pays sales tax and charges the potters 15%.  Good deal, that's why so many potters.  Lots of them traveling and lots of them total novices.  I'm really only doing this show to support the club.  I'm largely a plant guy and member.  Pretty serious potter for all that.  My main impression is that it's a PITA.  My wholesale accounts pretty much pay the same price I sell for at the show.  My take is that the retail venue sets the value added to my basic swap meet pricing.  Which is what a public sale is.  I didn't do as well as I wanted at this sale.  I'm going to do it again, but improve 1  Location.  I got pushed back into a corner that affected my foot traffic.  2.  Display.  All the plant vendors display on flat covered tables, and so have I, but this isn't the best way to display my work.  3. Price points.  This sale has at least 3 distinct buyers.  The serious plant collector who has a 1k$ +   plant to display, the novice collector who is mostly interested in adding plants and the people who didn't even know we were here today.   1% 20% 79%  Next time, I'll concentrate on $25 and under to the tune of 80% of my stock.  There are a bunch of these clubs all over the western USA, but I have zero interest in doing any.  Of course this is subject to change.

I actually found this market before I started making pots.  Fortunate, no?