May Fayre
The past month has been leading up to today: The Ross May Fayre. I volunteered to run a booth at the fayre, and decided that I was going to sell Cupcakes. The stall was provided by the people running the may fayre and it only cost 25pounds for the whole day.
I decided to make a few batches of chocolate chip cookies, and 2 batches of three different types of Cupcakes: Vanilla, chocolate and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes(Tastes like a chocolate chip cookie, but in cupcake form!). In the end of all my baking, I ended up making 100 cupcakes and around 150 cookies.
Two days before the fayre I ended up making all the cookies, then the day before the fayre I made all the cupcakes and frosted them.
Mixing the cupcakes up.
Cookies in the oven.
Cookies...the first of many.
Cartoon Kitchen.
Cupcakes in the oven.
Cupcakes done and cooling.
The baking was doable, I just ran into a few small bumps along the way. For instance, I baked all the cupcakes, but even when I turned off the over and let things cool, because our flat is so small, all the heat rose and stayed in our living room…so when it came time to frost, even though it seemed like the room was cooled off…the frosting still melted being in open air. So…I broke down, cried a bit, proclaimed that I couldn’t do it all in time, but then my wonderful hubby came to the rescue, calmed me down and we figured out how to fix the problem—stick the bowls of frosting in the freezer to set, opened the windows and waiting for our flat to cool down a bit more, then frosted the cupcakes, and kept them downstairs in the coolest part of our flat.
The cupcakes weren’t perfect(to my standards), but we got them done and after a whole day of baking(starting at 9am) we finally finished them at ten past midnight.
Now I have 3 POVs/opinions from the May Fayre:
#1 THE “I could’ve planned it better” GRUMP OPINION
The May Fayre was ALL over the town, spread out between 3 major high streets, and a few side streets in between. I understand that the people planning the may fayre wanted a big huge town-wide event, however, it wasn’t executed well enough. The stalls were basically bunches of three stalls together on one side of the street….nothing for about 3 car lengths, then on the opposite side of the street, another lump of 3 stalls. It was WAY too spread out.
The other thing was that they didn’t call me to let me know where to set up/where my booth is and what set up times were until the day before and even then it was a stall number and a street, not an approximate location.
The third thing was that apparently the stalls were allocated on first come first serve basis, but it seems like the earlier you signed up for a stall, the worst position you got because all the “first” stalls were at the bottom end of town, away from everything else, on a street most people don’t go down.
#2 THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
The May fayre was a great experience and the people I was put next to were really nice and friendly…to my left, the lady there commented on how beautiful my decorations were. And to my right, one of the ladies there saw how cold I was and lent me her fleece jacket…and then when I wanted to run home to change, she watched my booth and even did a sale for me! SO NICE!
#3 THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THINGS
Prices: I started off selling cupcakes for 1pound each and cookies 50pence each or 3 for 1 pound. In the last hour, that dropped down to cookies 30pence each or 3 for 50pence and the cupcakes 60pence each or 3 for 1pound. But, by the time I dropped prices, most everyone had gone home(because everything ALWAYS shuts around 4-5pm so people never see a reason to stay out longer than that…sad….they really need to adopt the concept of later hours during the summer means potential late business hours and more sales).
In the end, I didn’t sell nearly as much as I would’ve hoped and there are a few contributing factors to this. First of which was timing. Most people don’t like to eat sweets or let their kids have sweets before a meal and most people don’t eat sweets in the AM…..and seeing as how the may fayre was from 10am til 5pm, there was a small window between probably noon and 3 where business was okay.
But, secondly, my position was horrible. I was at the bottom of the street, in a place least visited by all the may fayre roads, next to an ice cream truck, and to add insult to injury at the TOP of the street there was a ‘cakes’ stall(selling cakes, breads, etc, and yes…some cupcakes). I heard a lot of “more cakes” comments and saw a lot of people choosing ice cream over me….when there WAS people on the street that is.
However, when people DID buy my cakes, the reaction was great. It was like people never knew cakes could taste so good….except for a few grumpy puss old ladies who said it was ‘too sweet’. LOLZ, upcakes are SUPPOSED TO BE SWEET! DUH!
I had put out a sample tray and used cut up cupcakes of the ones that didn’t rise as high as the cupcake liner…of course, with a dab of frosting. But, until about 3:30, I didn’t have anyone to help me hand out samples to bring them over to the booth. Hubby was at work until midday, and then he came and helped me at the booth, when he did, he stood at the stall taking orders and I stood in the middle of the walk way with the sample tray telling people about our product, handing out my business cards, and directing them to the booth if they seemed interested.
I have a rule about selling things to people, because I know when I go to a market, I don’t like people pestering me while I’m walking about whatever they have. If I’m interested, I’ll come to you, smile and look at you. So, my goal today was engage when people make eye contact. That means, if they look at ME, I say hi and ask them if they’d like a sample. If they smile, or taste a sample, I tell them about the product. If they linger at the booth, or seem unsure about bying them, I offer more…such as asking them to take a card, or offering my opinion of which I thought was my favorite.
Anyway….that’s the most of it. Now for the figures. Today I took home 60pounds. After supplies….that’s 13pounds. After all the business cards, decorations and other little things that helped enhance getting CaliCatCupcakes off the ground….minus’….not great, but hopefully by handing out business cards, I’ll be making that back someday.
In the end, I looked at today in this way: yes, I didn’t sell all of my stock. Yes, I didn’t make the money I should have. BUT I handed out my business cards and let people know I exist! I’m hopeful that new business will come in. One lady, an ex-baker, liked my cakes and even took loads of business cards to spread around.
Now…for the good part…pictures:
THE FINISHED PRODUCTS:
The cute way of disposing trash...use a cupcake decorated box!
My signage...once again, all done by me..including the logo, hand drawn and colored( btw people told me to ham up the fact I'm American....so I did):
MY BOOTH: Inbetween a crafts stall and a charity stall.
THE END....but hopefully not the end of the business. :P
