VivoCity Craft Market 6th to 7th July 2013 Post-Mortem

Hello,

Today is such a great day because it's a no-school day so we all got to sleep in. My weekend craft market is finally over and done with and I am so, so glad. Because I can't wait to take a bag-sewing break.

On Saturday I went dressed as a man.

Here it is, my Saturday display. My sales for the weekend was shockingly low. In fact it's the first time since I joined this market, my sales has hit this low. I only made enough to pay the rent and my meals. My sales on Saturday was scary. It's like what happened? Most people bought my low-value items. My sales on Sunday was actually a tiny bit higher than Saturday which isn't saying much because Sunday's sale is usually quite low.

If you were to ask me what went wrong, I could say that there were too many tables selling bags. Out of a total of 12 tables at my area, 4 were dedicated bag sellers while 2 others sold bags and softies. Now that's 6 out of 12. So I had a lot of competition. Usually I'm the queen of bags.  Now I'm feeling the heat.

It would have been depressing except on Saturday my girl went with me and also my dear friend Corinna was around. It's always interesting when she's around.

My girl and I got to spend our girly time together. She even let me braid her hair. This was my first attempt. My second attempt was way better and if we are able to wake up early enough, she might just go to school in double braids!

Nothing much interesting happened where we were. Once a combo of a big doll and some other people dressed in seafood costume came by. What is their purpose? I can't really say. They don't drive any traffic to our craft market, that's for sure.

Well, now that the weekend market's over, I shall focus on the next market which is on 27th and 28th July. It's no point dwelling on what's over. I hope to make a more interesting batch of bags for the next round.

Oh I did learn one thing over the weekend. When you give discounts, you attract a different set of customers. And for them, your discounts will never be enough. I spent so much time fending off people asking for more and more discounts. It was ridiculous. One lady was so determined to buy my wristlet for a very low price. It was $25 marked down to $20. She told me I had used VERY ORDINARY fabric for the wristlet and decided it was only worth $12, thereby giving herself a further $8 discount. I declined her offer and so she decided I should custom make one for her. Seriously? I informed her I do not custom make my pouches and she got very offended and upset and stalked off. As I said, there were 5 other tables selling bags and she found someone willing to custom make for her.

And why do I attract the crazies? I had this woman who came to my table and she looked very interested in my bags. Unfortunately when I spoke with her, she told me she had no intention of buying anything because she is unemployed. In the same breath, she showed me a pouch she had in her bag which she said cost $50 but it was very useful because she could store everything in it. So it was worth every cent. Then for 15 minutes, she described to me every skin ailment she had suffered from. Gawd! I thought she was done. Nope. She took it upon herself to give me advice on how to improve my bags. Does she sew? No. Did she work as a bag seller? No. Basically, using her experience as someone who has used bags, she told me the bags I had made weren't practical. She pointed to a few bags and told me the flaws - like too big, or too broad, or too tall, or whatever. She said the best bag had to be of a specific size and she proceeded to use her hands to measure for me how tall and wide the bag had to be. So she described her dream bag to me. Honestly, some people are too familiar with me. 

Oh, on Sunday morning, a woman was murdered in my estate. My son said he heard a scream. Sorry. Sprang that on you.

Catch you guys later.