Great Grapes Wine, Arts, & Food Festival, Cockeysville, MD
In a word: disappointing. But it was enlightening and educational. We left pretty early in the morning on Saturday and we had a relatively pleasant drive to Maryland. Getting to the show was easy and it was pretty easy to get in next to our booth and to set up. Unfortunately a storm had blown through the night before and there were many, many tents that sustained quite heavy damage. As the morning progressed more and more people came to set up and of course we were put next to a real jerk. I mean, he was nice to us, but he treated the young girls that worked for the promoters like crap and really was just a nasty little fellow. Luckily C was with me. I really think if it was just me and K the situation would have been different, especially since he totally ignored me and only talked to C on Saturday. The show opened and the people came. I was amazed how many people actually came to the show, I mean, it was north of Baltimore and also hot out and sort of expensive to get into, $20 for entrance and a tasting glass. Well now… one thing about Maryland and this wine show that I had never seen before- the sale of full, chilled, bottles of wine. Let me tell you there was quite a bit of intoxication going on and because of the heat most people just sat in the shade with their bottle, rather than walking around and taking in the rest of the show. Sales for the day were depressingly low and I really thought about going home, but we were so far in the hole, C talked me into staying to see if sales on Sunday would dig us out any.
That night C got us a room using rewards points and he was super disappointed in the service we got. He actually called to complain, that’s not like him. We had dinner at a fat food taco place that was pretty good. The bed was comfortable and clean and I got a pretty good nights sleep.
Sunday in the morning we found a bagel place and ate before going to the show. We also picked up sandwich stuff from the grocery store because the food at the show really left something to be desired, it was not good at all. C also did some wine tasting on Sat and he couldn’t find any good wine either! But the sales were better on Sunday. It was almost a different show. It seemed the day pulled in a totally different demographic with older and more sophisticated customers. I had a in depth discussion about soapmaking and its chemistry with a young man who really wanted to show me up with his knowledge, but was let down by his lack of ability to follow through. I learned of a few shows in Maryland that I have been told were good and got applications to a few others that I know nothing about but need to do some research on.
I learned a few really important lessons: 1) there is a thing as “too drunk” to buy. Usually alcohol loosens the wallet, but this show cost so much there was little left over for people to spend on crafts. 2) these shows are different: typically a good rule of thumb at a craft show is that your Sunday sales will be ½ of Saturday, but with this on Sunday was almost double Saturday. So I am glad that I didn’t tear down and bolt. At least I squeaked by with enough sales to break even. 3) its not my imagination, good shows are getting harder and harder to come by and I am going to find many, many, more bad ones than good ones. So I need to chill out and be happy with breaking even and be glad that I am not loosing more money learning about these shows. 4) I need to research first hand. I don’t have many weekends without shows but when I do I need to go out and check out ones that I am interested in doing. I don’t have to check out dozens in a weekend, but one or two of the most interesting would be good.
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