Bad Shows Happen

What should have been a great market day was anything but, and serves as a prime examplet of how sometimes, a bad market is just out of your control and therefore you have to just roll with the punches. I had a booth at the LA Market at Dodgers Stadium, and what should have been a great market was killed by unexpected soaring temps of over 103 degrees, which resulted in the show being shutdown in the middle of the day. It was so hot that literally almost all of my pillar candles started to melt, and are now so deformed, I will have to completely melt them down and re-mold them, which is additional work for me when my time is already at a premium. Despite my van being insulated, even the inventory that I kept in there was destroyed.

But I try to walk away from every show, even a bad one with a positive outlook, and walk away from it learning something. At this market, I learned that while it may be great for some of my products, its not great for all. Also, I learned that the 20 foot space they provide I could totally utilize a lot better that I did with a little more preparation. Also, this type of a market, I would use more for getting rid of excess or discontinue inventory, rather than making everything new. More importantly, I learned the importance of allways bringing a cooler and plent of water with me, especially for an outdoor market.

What happened today is a prime reason why I gave up doing outdoor markets 9 years ago, but I am going back for my customers, who are wonderful and loyal, but who cannot always make it to one of my larger shows due to either location, or excessive high parking and entry fees. Therefore I am trying to do as many local markets in between my larger shows as possible.

Another good thing I learned from this show is that Lee Philly's Gogi Food Truck is too die for! They had the most awesome global cuisine. My favorite was the Gogi Taco, which was a really big taco for only $2.50. Gogi is Lee's seasoned Korean beef which was juicy, tender, and the taco was topped with cheese, spices, a kimchi salsa? Whatever you call it you will love it like no other! This food truck hits up a lot places around the LA area, so if you ever see it, definitely stop and have a taco.