Positives: Where do I start? This is my favorite holiday event of the year! The location is excellent...Organization & management is excellent...Customer volume is excellent! The Salem Etsy Team leadership hosts this event and it is primarily Etsy shop owners along with other non-Etsy vendors. All items must be handmade and most of the booths are "corner" booths. This event is held at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, Jackman Long building in Salem, OR which has plenty of free parking. Not only is there food available for purchase, there is also a local restaurant that delivers pre-ordered food right to your booth...vendors can place an order in the weeks leading up to the event. There is no shortage of customers...we had a steady stream of visitors until later in the afternoon. Even then, there were still quite a few people roaming the market.
Negatives: I can't really think of any negatives, although next year I will probably pay extra for electricity.
Will we participate next year? YES!
What did I learn? I need to invest in lighting for my booth.
Ideas to make this a better event: Not much. . . this is one of my favorite events of the year. It's huge for us. This is how events SHOULD be organized and run. Bravo, Sandy & Crew!
Q & A:
Corner Booth vs. Side by Side...We like having a corner booth, where it opens on a corner. A side by side booth is just that...only one opening for customers to come and go through the front. A corner booth allows for more customers to roam in and out and give us more space for displaying our merchandise.
1 comment
I’m excited to try this market for the first time on 2024 and glad you’ve had a good experience in the past! I’m wondering if you happen to have any pictures of what you mean by a “corner booth”? This is only my second market ever! (I’m at TheWildWoodery.Etsy.com) Thank you jn advance!