Gardeners' Market Report

Well, it was no Memorial Day, but we did just fine. We grossed $73.50. M sold two of her little books, and traded a book and bookmark for a "magic" wand that a guy in a costume wizard hat was selling. The wands were interesting and the guy was very nice, but I don't know why anyone would want one. After all, they don't do real magic.

I arranged a trade with the barrel-shaped chef from the breakfast burrito stand. He wears this chef uniform that's black with flames, and he has extra-large hands. So I offered to trade with him for a custom set of hot mitts that matched his chef uniform. Today we struck the deal: two pairs of the hot mitts for two cheesecakes. (Side note: I found out last weekend that this chef is the same one who is catering the school lunches at the charter school. Tiny Princess recognized him and identified him.)

I also had a bit of a marketing success. I wanted to sell more of the colored cotton items at the market (I'd previously been selling the vast majority of them to my mom, and few to none at the market). The colored cotton is nearly half the cost of the organic cotton, but the items can command the same price at the market, so naturally I'd like to be selling more of these. I hit upon the idea of pre-packaging these as gift sets, all tied with a ribbon and ready to throw in a gift bag with some tissue. I made sets of different sizes with prices from $5 to $17, but I think the best sales will be of sets in the $7-10 range, since our average purchase is a little over $7. And I sold three sets today, so it worked. I think that if I have some better colors I'll sell more. I was out of good colors this week, and what little I had in good colors was what sold. But I did some research and found out what colors are "in" for kitchens, so I will order those colors and hopefully I can start doing a brisker business in colored gift sets.