Strategy is required when vendors want to sell at the ASUO Street Faire and be noticed.
Gaining a spot in the street fair depends on what the vendor’s cart is used for. Food carts require specific licenses on top of the standard one to operate a cart.
“Our carts are licensed through the health department,” said Emily Phillips of the Red Wagon Creamery, which is in its third street faire. “Our carts are licensed as mobile kitchen units, and we have to have bi-yearly inspections of our carts and our commissary kitchen, and we have to pay a licensing fee once a year.”
Consistency also seems to help gain a spot for the event.
“It takes sending applications over to the street faire over and over until they let us in, then we send in our products so they can taste it,” said Morgan Winegarden of Bandon’s Best Kettle Korn, which is in its ninth street faire.@@Morgan isn’t on Google but https://www.facebook.com/BandonsBestKettleKorn@@
Moustapha Gueye of Demba Services applied four times and sent a $150 check before finally gaining his first spot for his leather-goods tent, which didn’t require a license.@@http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_web_name_srch_inq.show_detl?p_be_rsn=1277185&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=TRUE@@
Marcia Peeters of Pierce Street Gardens recommended originality to increase chances to get in the street faire.@@http://www.linkedin.com/pub/marcia-peeters/40/b4b/595@@
“To get a spot, you need to have something unusual, something that others don’t already have because they are very particular about not duplicating and not creating a lot of competition for the same kind of thing,” Peeters said.
Some vendors studied what the students wanted in order to make a sale. Peeters sold indoor cacti and succulents at low prices so that students could afford them and included tips on how to keep their plants alive.
Marlene Townsend of Voyagers Jewelry@@http://feleciarollins.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/must-stop-spots-at-the-eugene-saturday-market/@@ targeted young people by making more dramatic and bigger jewelry.
“You have to have a really good product, a reasonable price and a good setup that attracts people and you need to focus on the kind of people you are selling to,” Townsend said.
Others like Vijay Frtle’s Vijay’s Indian Food Cart, which has been in the street faire since 1997, relied on good word of mouth.
“I used to have some restaurants (in Portland) and people know the food,” Frtle said.
The first year vendors like Peeters and Gueye learned from their autumn sales on what students want and are anticipating for the next street faire.
“I’ll be ready for next time because I know what they want and like,” Gueye said.
As for Peeters, she is considering next fall’s street faire, but is unsure about the upcoming one in spring because students will be getting ready to leave for summer.
“Who wants to buy a plant that you have to carry home?” Peeters said.