Tough Times Call For New Measures

It matters not what type of vendor you are

·         a straight vendor

·         food vendor

·         fair vendor

·         festival vendor

·         street vendor

There are certain rules “set in stone” that apply to all.

By far, the majority of your customers are in the lower 80% income level, people like you and me.  Many still attend fairs because it’s tradition, a once-a-year event.  They DO reduce their spending.

Food is one of the top three reasons people go to any and every event. 

In tough times people are more selective in what they buy.  As vendors, this means we must be more selective in what we serve.  Old standards like funnel cakes, elephant ears, and chicken-on-a-stick will always sell, but with less money in the pot, and every other booth in the fair selling them, more of us will fall into the failing economy pile, go out of business, or become unemployed.

Fad foods, deep fried candy bars etc. suffer the most.  It’s time to look at what you’re offering.  Check the latest fad foods. People are more likely to try something new for their splurge.  Value items such as hot beef, French dips, or BBQ can also give you additional items with the same ingredients; greatly reducing your inventory requirements. 

Street vendors may want to increase value by offering more for the same price.  We are limited to our buying sources but we can upgrade their experience.  Most businesses cut back on service or product offered to save money in though times.  Many of these companies fail!  Big box stores and dollar stores thrive because people view what they offer as a value – more bang for their buck.

Here is a sample change: 

A BBQ plate with the normal size sandwich, 1 oz chip and 20 ounce drink

Try this: 

• bigger bun = 5¢
• an extra tablespoon of meat = ? depending on your product
• bigger bag of chips or more fries = 5¢
• 32 oz drink = 10¢
• extra spoonful of slaw or baked beans

have added what appears to be $2 or more in value to the customer at a cost of 25¢ (or so) to food vendors.  If you serve them more than they can eat, they will remember, they will tell their friends.  People look for value in today's world.  They will remember you.

Hopefully this will initiate thoughts on ways to boost your biz in this tight economy.

We are All Vendors!

We tickled you with a promise or two, and a good recipe, so I would say it is time to get down to brass tacks.  For some of you, the first few blogs may be fundamental info, but if I have learned anything in my 66 years, it is

q     It's never too late to learn something new, and

q     Rust never sleeps. 

For us old timers in vending, today’s blog will seem elementary, but some times back to basics is not such a bad idea.

First, just what is vending all about? 

Every product sold in the world today originally started, thousands of years ago with someone, selling it on the road side, in the front of their house, a cave or wherever the case may be.

Vending is the true incubator for all economies in the world today. 

America’s entire economy today depends solely on vending.  We are no longer the world supplier of steel, coal, oil, machinery, ships, cars, or anything else.  We are a country of vendors and we vend to each other.  Jack the plumber down the street vends his service, and the most famous of all is Wal-Mart – just a vendor on a mega scale.

There are thousands of sites on the internet, and hundreds of ads on TV and radio about work from home opportunities.  Most, in my opinion are just scams.  The only ones that seem to be making money are those vending the scams.  The true "work from home opportunity" is vending.

This very country was founded on you, the vendor, and it is time to get back to basics!  Every single one of us has an item to vend or is capable of creating an item and selling a product of value to others who need it.  Sometimes they don’t need it but ‘want it’!  

• Do you sew, make great pies, or boil a hot dog? 
• Do you have a small table and a chair? 
• Can you afford a box or two of vegetables and/or fruit? 

Our history is filled with people just like you who started with no more. 

• Pappa John’s Pizza started with a guy who sold his car for $1,500.  He gave his parents $1,000 of it and started vending pizza with the other $500 from a broom closet. (Incidentally he recently bought back that same Camero for $250,000.)  
• McDonald’s started when Ray Crock was trying to vend malt machines.

Vending is the

• most satisfying
• most fun
• most independent
• most freedom producing
• hardest work you will ever do

Ghoulish Fun Recipe

With Halloween approaching, here is a fun and unique way to bring business to your Street Food.

Wow the kids and gross out Mom!

If you are a food vendor or a product vendor, here is a neat-treat for Halloween!  Great for the kids and some Ghoulish fun!  This is for fry vendors that want a twist on an old standard, one that will add a little bump in your business.  If you are parents of kids above 3 yrs old I'm sure you have the same reaction to the gross things kids seem to revel on these days, so, how about "Fried Road Kill" for an amusing treat.

Fried Road Kill

1 1/2 cups milk

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup + 1 dash vegetable oil

2 Tablespoons dry yeast

4 cups all-purpose flour

Topping:

1 cup melted butter

1cup cinnamon sugar mix  (1/3 cup cinnamon and 2/3 cups sugar)

gummy worms

red licorice strings

small amount of cooked rice

green olives

sliced strawberries

(read the recipe and use your imagination!)

Place salt, sugar and shortening in a pan and mix. (Heat if necessary.)  Heat milk to 110°F, add yeast, stir and let rest for 5 minutes.

In a bowl place flour and make a well in the center.  Add milk and yeast mixture to the well;  cut with a pastry blender or a knife and fork. 

Add sugar, salt, and shortening; mix and/or knead until it forms a soft dough.  Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Melt butter and make the cinnamon and sugar topping.

Heat 1 inch of oil in a pan or commercial fryer to a temperature between 375°F and 385°F.

Roll the dough out to 3/8 inch flats; pull off pieces and roll into balls according to how big or small you want your dead animal to be.  Baseball size is good for home use, commercial vendors use soft ball size pieces.

Lightly flour surface and roll out each ball to about 1/2 inch thick.

Pick it up and pull it into what ever animal shape you want, head, ears, legs, tail etc.

Drop the animal into oil and fry to med to light brown, over frying will make them crisp.  This should take 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

Remove from fryer to drain pan or paper towels.  Brush with melted butter and decorate with gummy worms etc in appropriate places, (Half a green, an olive or strawberry slice make good eyes.  The cooked rice is for maggots.)

Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar mix .  Have a camera handy.  The kids will remember this treat forever. 

Pizza Delivery Please

Just a few days ago, I had the opportunity to explain how it came to be that a major pizza company's sign was above a vendor's tent.

This information is covered in the book Festival and Fair Vending 101 by Michael Wier, but I have also been involved in this situation myself.  It works!  Believe me, it does!

Here is a excerpt from Festival and Fair Vending 101;  (Please note the guys in the story below are not wanting people to know they have ordered their pizza from a local joint!)

The Pizza Kings

While doing a fair in Ft. Myers, Florida I decided to have some pizza for lunch so I went to the pizza trailer I saw earlier on the midway and ordered a slice.  While I was waiting I looked over the trailer as I always do, it wasn't anything fancy just a Waymatic with three serving sides, two counters, two ovens or, what I thought were ovens, and a fountain drink machine, drink cups and the usual paraphernalia.  After two or three trips over the week, it occurred to me I never saw these guys making pizza, so on my next trip I took a close look.  I found no refrigerator, no dough mixer or really any other equipment it took to make pizza.  Being an inquisitive (nosey) type, I decided to keep a quiet eye on the situation.  What I discovered was so simple yet so ingenious I was flabbergasted.

I did two shows with these two guys in south central Florida and here is their operation.  Before the show opens they go to a local pizza chain or store that has at least two locations, and contract for large regular pizza at $5 ea. and supreme multi topping pizza at $6.  They then sell the pizza at $2.50 per slice and usually every one buys a drink at $1.50 for small and $2.50 for large.  They sliced the pizza into six slices at a gross of $15 per pie plus $1 and usually $2 per profit on the drinks, pretty good profit, but here is the real story.  I found where they were stashing the empty pizza boxes behind the midway line ups.  These great entrepreneurs were selling 50 to 70 pizzas on a week day and 125 to 175 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Let’s just use the lower numbers,

4,400 slices of pizza at an average of $1.50 per slice

= $6,600 gross profit

not bad, but we forgot to add the drinks, so lets say not every one bought a drink, and average the profit on drinks at only $1 per customer another $6,600, $12,000 to $15,000 gross profit per show. Not bad for two waiters serving pizza.

This is a simple how-to listed in Festivals and Fairs Vending 101.  Be sure to order your copy!

You can purchase either the book or ebook at Lulu.com. 

Just click here.

Have a great day scheduling your events!

Cindy

Why We are Here!

Having been in the show vending business over 30 years, and still active on occasion, I have often greased some of the 22 million plus sites listed on the net.  I realized hundreds of thousands of them have little bits of info here and there.  Some deal with specific items, jewelry, art, crafts, food etc.  Most give you a morsel of info, a few paragraphs here and there about how to get started.  The majority are trying to get you to sign up for a show two thousand miles away. 

After all of that, until now, there has not been a comprehensive Vendor site.

It is true that most vendors are accidental, meaning they produce a product and someone says, “Hey that's pretty neat, you should go try to sell it”.  Off you go to the local town festival with table and chairs, with no idea what to do.  A few vendors will be persistent or lucky, or both.  Many will fall by the wayside.  The reason is simple.  Vending is a business like any other, it’s not much different than buying or renting a building on Main Street, stocking it with inventory, and dedicating your time and hoping the customers come.

You can find a school, brick and mortar or go online to teach you how to do any thing you can imagine...... except for vending.  We will change that.  We recently completed a 244 page book of my 30 years of vending on the road.  It’s for sale, but that is not all this blog is about.  With what you learn, you will be able to earn just as much money as anyone with a degree from the top ivy covered walls.  Of course, you could just move on and spend the next 3 years learning by trial and error.

We will cover food vending, craft vending, straight sales, and children's entertainment.  In addition, there are regulations, regulators, promoters, amateur and professional big shows, small shows, small fairs and big mega fairs; including the differences and why you should and shouldn't.

We will offer help including items for sale, like books, pamphlets, recipes, organizers and other items, to support the site.  We will also accept donations to keep it going and to expand your education.  But remember, the main focus, Fair Vendor, Festival Vendor will be the most helpful vendor site on line.  We will try to answer all of your questions.  For the time being, we will post twice a week with new info, stories, suggestions, and ideas. 

If you have questions, please leave them in the comment section.  They will be addressed.

So tune in often.  We may even throw in a few surprise posts.

Thanks,

M.C. Wier

Cindy Buttles

Welcome!

Welcome to Fair Vendor, Festival Vendor

This is the place to come for the latest and most up-to-date information on vending at fairs, festivals and craft shows.  Also stop by if you have a cart for selling ice cream, hot dogs or anything inbetween!

Be sure to let us know if you have any questions.  We would love to help!  That is our reason for being!

Welcome aboard!