In the fall of 2011, in a twist of fate, our lives changed again. Earlier that year Judy's mother Virginia was looking to purchase a property in or around Concord, to help our son start a thrift store type business. A piece of property came available a quarter mile from our house. The property consisted of a very small store, a 1,400 sq. ft. wood frame duplex and a vacant lot. The store was way too small for a quilt shop, but would do for our son's thrift shop. The duplex, built in 1927 had seen better days. The front apartment had been vacant for a while and the back apartment was recently vacated so there were no tenants to evict. Unfortunately, the recently departed tenant apparently smoked like a chimney and let her cats run amok. Your eyes would water from the smell of cat urine and second hand smoke. Rumor was that she had died there, but with the smell in the apartment she could have laid there weeks with no one noticing. Neither apartment had air conditioning and the heat was provided by big gas heaters that were vented into the two fireplaces and extended 5 feet into the rooms. There was one parking space for each apartment - on gravel.
Virginia and Judy worked out a deal, but the negotiations weren't easy. Judy never intended to open a brick-and-mortar quilt shop. She had owned a Stained Glass Studio and knew what a time commitment that was. She just "didn't want to have to be someplace every day." Plus, we had to figure out the best way to finance the renovation. Calling HGTV to do a show on renovating the building didn't seem realistic.
Nevertheless, there were compelling reasons to take the deal. First, I wasn't getting any younger. I had an "expiration date" on my ability to schlep our merchandise around the country, set up and tear down quilt booths. In August, 2011 I saw a suspicious bulge in my lower abdomen which turned out to be a hernia. I have a cardiac pacemaker and am a cancer survivor, so this was a real wake up call. Most importantly though, if we could pull this off we'd have a nice piece of commercial property and a base of operations which could allow us to develop a long term clientele and a business with greater intrinsic value. Throw in the ability to walk to work and it was a no brainer.
We took the deal. After all, how hard could it be to renovate the building?
Monday, June 30, 2014
Thursday, June 26, 2014
The World's Largest Quilt Show
Before I begin the next phase of our story, I'm going to regale you with one more tale about quilt shows. The world's largest quilt show is the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Believe it or not, more than 61,000 quilting enthusiasts descend upon the George Brown Convention Center for a 4 day show every November. The year we were there we were one of 546 vendors. If you were to walk all of the aisles to see the quilts and visit the vendors you would cover nearly 8 miles. The show promoters rent electric carts to the attendees. Fresh off of our success at Paducah, Judy and I decided to rent a 10ft by 20ft booth there. After all, "Festival" as it's referred to in the trade is 3 times the size of the AQS show in Paducah, so we figured we could make a lot of money there.
At the World Quilt Competition at New Hampshire I told Pepper Cory, a who's who person in the quilting world, that we would be going to Houston. She said to watch out for thieves. According to Pepper, thieves work in groups there. One low life scumbag will distract the booth owner while another one looks to steal purses and cash boxes. Sure enough, when we got our vendor packet, there was a an entire page of tips on avoiding theft. While I was at the show I overheard a conversation between a vendor and a security guard, the vendor's purse had been stolen. The Security guard said that there was not much he could do, but the convention staff checks the trash cans every day for purses and wallets. Apparently, the low life scumbags will often take the money and credit cards out of the purse and throw it in the trash. At least she might get her purse back.
The 4 Musketeers, Judy, Virginia, Lea and I convened at the show and got the booth set up. Judy, Virginia and I made the 2 day drive from North Carolina and Lea flew in from California. The set up was uneventful and the show was off to a great start. On the second day I was heading to the show, tripped over a piece of broken concrete and fell on my face. I ended up with a deep thigh bruise and a swollen hand. A trip to the emergency room showed nothing serious, and the next day I got to rest in our hotel room with an ice bag on my leg watching movies on HBO.
Long story short we sold a ton, far more than Paducah. HOWEVER, Houston, like all big cities is expensive and at the end of each day Lea and Virginia wanted to know where we were going for dinner. And they didn't mean McDonald's. The food was great, but with travel expenses, hotel rooms, booth rental, etc., we literally ate up all the profits and then some. Nevertheless, I never regretted going there because it was such an amazing experience. Plus, it was good for our "street cred" that we'd been vendors at Festival.
Back in North Carolina, an event occurred that would permanently change our lives and our business. Stay tuned.
At the World Quilt Competition at New Hampshire I told Pepper Cory, a who's who person in the quilting world, that we would be going to Houston. She said to watch out for thieves. According to Pepper, thieves work in groups there. One low life scumbag will distract the booth owner while another one looks to steal purses and cash boxes. Sure enough, when we got our vendor packet, there was a an entire page of tips on avoiding theft. While I was at the show I overheard a conversation between a vendor and a security guard, the vendor's purse had been stolen. The Security guard said that there was not much he could do, but the convention staff checks the trash cans every day for purses and wallets. Apparently, the low life scumbags will often take the money and credit cards out of the purse and throw it in the trash. At least she might get her purse back.
The 4 Musketeers, Judy, Virginia, Lea and I convened at the show and got the booth set up. Judy, Virginia and I made the 2 day drive from North Carolina and Lea flew in from California. The set up was uneventful and the show was off to a great start. On the second day I was heading to the show, tripped over a piece of broken concrete and fell on my face. I ended up with a deep thigh bruise and a swollen hand. A trip to the emergency room showed nothing serious, and the next day I got to rest in our hotel room with an ice bag on my leg watching movies on HBO.
Long story short we sold a ton, far more than Paducah. HOWEVER, Houston, like all big cities is expensive and at the end of each day Lea and Virginia wanted to know where we were going for dinner. And they didn't mean McDonald's. The food was great, but with travel expenses, hotel rooms, booth rental, etc., we literally ate up all the profits and then some. Nevertheless, I never regretted going there because it was such an amazing experience. Plus, it was good for our "street cred" that we'd been vendors at Festival.
Back in North Carolina, an event occurred that would permanently change our lives and our business. Stay tuned.
Monday, June 23, 2014
An Unexpected Success
To recap our adventures so far at the giant AQS show at Paducah, Kentucky, the 10 foot by 20 foot booth in the Main Expo Center that had we contracted for was now a 10 foot by 10 foot booth at an abandoned Circuit City store on the outskirts of town. The main Expo Center became a part of the Ohio River that year, forcing AQS to scramble to put a show together at all. The night before the show, Judy, her mother Virginia, our daughter Lea and I survived a night of heavy thunderstorms, hail and a tornado warning so severe that a siren went off. That was the same night that a huge tornado hit Tuscaloosa, Alabama and caused a number of fatalities. We felt fortunate to get through the night unscathed.
We were sure that the circumstances would cause the show to be a disaster, but we resolved to do the best we could with the small space we had. Little did we know that the flooding worked in our favor. Every vendor received a 10 foot by 10 foot booth regardless of what they had contracted for. The mega vendors with their thousands of bolts couldn't get them in. Moreover, Eleanor Burns warehouses flooded and she was unable to offer her thousands upon thousands of yards of fabric a $3 to $5 per yard. The attendees were still there, however and looking to spend. I have a running joke at each quilt show we're at. Typically, the attendance at the show starts very slowly and builds up as the day goes on. Most times you're not even aware the show has opened. At the beginning of each show I say "drop the rope and let em in". Even if no one's there. At Paducah, we literally had to fight our way through the crowds in the lobby of the Circuit City store get to our booth before the show opened. At times the aisles were so packed you could hardly move.
One other advantage we had was being at the end of a cul-de-sac. Attendees would come up a long aisle and turn right only to be trapped in our cul-de-sac, and have to go by our booth a second time. I was stunned by the number of attendees and how much they bought. Judy simply said "I told you so. Quilters save up all year to spend at Paducah". She should know, she was one of them.
Long story short, we had a tremendous show. The only problem was that we were again across from someone doing product demonstrations. This time the demonstration was "How to make your own chenille". When the show began, the only thing I knew about chenille is that it's in bathrobes and bedspreads. After 4 days of listening to the same demonstration, I knew far more about chenille than I ever wanted to know.
The last day of the the show, Lea flew back to California and Judy, Virginia and I returned to Concord with big smiles. You just never know.
PS - Judy, did do some shopping.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Thunderstorms, hail and tornadoes, oh my!
In my last blog post I told the story of how our experience as vendors at the big AQS quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky got off to a disappointing start. The Expo Center in Paducah became part of the Ohio River that week and the the show was relocated to makeshift quarters at 2 abandoned retail stores out by the Interstate. After we calmed down about the situation, Judy, Virginia and I set out to do the best we could. After all, neither us nor the show promoter could do anything about the weather.
When we arrived at the abandoned Circuit City we unloaded the trailer and Judy took off for Lowe's to find something we could use to cover the big oil slick in the middle of our booth. She returned with some multi colored foam rubber tiles that are used for kids' playrooms. After a few hours of work, the booth was looking pretty good, as was the vendor mall at Circuit City. At this point I should explain that there are no rookie vendors at Paducah. You must have been a vendor at another large AQS show before you're even allowed to rent space there. Trust me, experienced quilt show vendors can make any space look good. That's what we do.
Satisfied that the booth looked as good as it could, we had dinner and headed back to the B&B. At dinner the TV set at the restaurant showed severe thunderstorms in the area, but we weren't overly concerned. By then we had lived in the South for 5 years, where thunderstorms are commonplace. On our way to the B&B we were caught in a really big storm, it was dark and suddenly Judy asked, "What's that bouncing on the road ahead?" It was hail so large that we were afraid it would crash through our windshield. A minute later a tornado siren started blaring. Remember that Judy is a native Californian and I spent most of my life there. We didn't know what to do. Should we lie down in a ditch? Try and find an underpass for a bridge? I tried to remember TV shows about tornadoes and what you're supposed to do, but was drawing a blank. So we drove to the elementary school where the siren was blasting to figure out our next move. It was there that I thought "What are the odds that we're moving in one direction and a tornado moving from another direction hits us? Not very good." So we drove back to the B&B through constant heavy thunderstorms but no tornadoes, thank God.
However, our ordeal wasn't over yet. Our daughter Lea was en route from California to join us that night. It took nearly 3 hours for her connecting flight to get from Dallas to Nashville while dodging numerous heavy thunderstorms. From there she had a 3 hour drive to Paducah which included the same country roads where we had heard the tornado siren. It wasn't until I saw her headlights coming up the driveway of the B&B that I could breathe again. I was even more amazed that she got there safely when I saw her rental car. She had a tiny sub compact that looked like a car you ride in an amusement park.
By morning the thunderstorms had subsided. The 4 Musketeers - Judy, Virginia, Lea and I headed to the show not knowing what to expect.
When we arrived at the abandoned Circuit City we unloaded the trailer and Judy took off for Lowe's to find something we could use to cover the big oil slick in the middle of our booth. She returned with some multi colored foam rubber tiles that are used for kids' playrooms. After a few hours of work, the booth was looking pretty good, as was the vendor mall at Circuit City. At this point I should explain that there are no rookie vendors at Paducah. You must have been a vendor at another large AQS show before you're even allowed to rent space there. Trust me, experienced quilt show vendors can make any space look good. That's what we do.
Satisfied that the booth looked as good as it could, we had dinner and headed back to the B&B. At dinner the TV set at the restaurant showed severe thunderstorms in the area, but we weren't overly concerned. By then we had lived in the South for 5 years, where thunderstorms are commonplace. On our way to the B&B we were caught in a really big storm, it was dark and suddenly Judy asked, "What's that bouncing on the road ahead?" It was hail so large that we were afraid it would crash through our windshield. A minute later a tornado siren started blaring. Remember that Judy is a native Californian and I spent most of my life there. We didn't know what to do. Should we lie down in a ditch? Try and find an underpass for a bridge? I tried to remember TV shows about tornadoes and what you're supposed to do, but was drawing a blank. So we drove to the elementary school where the siren was blasting to figure out our next move. It was there that I thought "What are the odds that we're moving in one direction and a tornado moving from another direction hits us? Not very good." So we drove back to the B&B through constant heavy thunderstorms but no tornadoes, thank God.
However, our ordeal wasn't over yet. Our daughter Lea was en route from California to join us that night. It took nearly 3 hours for her connecting flight to get from Dallas to Nashville while dodging numerous heavy thunderstorms. From there she had a 3 hour drive to Paducah which included the same country roads where we had heard the tornado siren. It wasn't until I saw her headlights coming up the driveway of the B&B that I could breathe again. I was even more amazed that she got there safely when I saw her rental car. She had a tiny sub compact that looked like a car you ride in an amusement park.
By morning the thunderstorms had subsided. The 4 Musketeers - Judy, Virginia, Lea and I headed to the show not knowing what to expect.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Paducah Part II
The 10 hour drive from Concord to Paducah was uneventful. When we reached the outskirts of town I started to get real excited. We were going to duke it out with the big boys.
When we arrived at Vendor Check In there was just one other vendor in front of us. I overheard the lady at the reception desk say to them "You're in Circuit City. It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate. Here's a map" I thought that they must be one of the vendors in the side shows. They weren't a prestigious, top drawer vendor like us with a spot in the main Expo Center. You can guess what happened next. The lady at the desk checked our credentials and said "You're in Circuit City. It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate. Here's a map." I said "No, no, no! We're in the main Expo Hall. There must be some mistake!" She replied "Sir, the Ohio River is flooding. By tomorrow night there will be 21 inches of water in the main convention hall. We've rented a couple of empty retail buildings by the Interstate, and we're putting vendors there. Each vendor will get a 10 foot by 10 foot space." We had paid for a 10 foot by 20 foot space and we had a trailer full of stuff for that size booth. So I said "Can we get a refund of our booth fee given the circumstances." The answer - "No. We're having a show and we have a booth for you so no full refund. However, we will refund part of your fee since your not getting all the space you paid for. The Vendor Chairperson will get back to you on the details. If you don't take the booth we have for you, you forfeit the entire fee."
What could we do. We had just driven 10 hours and paid for a week of hotel rooms plus our daughter's air fare (all non-refundable). So we headed to the abandoned Circuit City. The facility was alive with workers setting up booths. Unfortunately, the booths were 8 feet wide and 12 feet deep. If you put one table in the front of the booth nobody could get in it. We went to the spot where our booth was being set up only to find a giant black oil stain right in the middle of it. Judy was was in tears. We had committed substantial funds to the show so far (well into 4 figures), and that didn't include the meals we would have during the week and gas for the trip home. I could read her mind - "Why did I decide to come to Paducah? What possessed me to start a quilt business? Why was I born?" The "Holy Grail" of quilt shows was not off to an auspicious start.
There was nothing else we could do that day, so we left Circuit City and went to find our bed & breakfast. It was pretty far out of town down some country roads, but it was very nice. The only problem was that the owner didn't quite understand that we were there to work, not have a romantic weekend. Breakfast had to be on the table a 7:30 am sharp so we could get to the show on time. She did a pretty good job of hitting the deadline, but I could tell she wasn't happy about it.
The next day was set up day, so after a good night's sleep and an excellent breakfast, Judy, Virginia and I headed back to Circuit City to see if we could make some lemonade out of this lemon.
When we arrived at Vendor Check In there was just one other vendor in front of us. I overheard the lady at the reception desk say to them "You're in Circuit City. It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate. Here's a map" I thought that they must be one of the vendors in the side shows. They weren't a prestigious, top drawer vendor like us with a spot in the main Expo Center. You can guess what happened next. The lady at the desk checked our credentials and said "You're in Circuit City. It's about 3 miles down the road by the Interstate. Here's a map." I said "No, no, no! We're in the main Expo Hall. There must be some mistake!" She replied "Sir, the Ohio River is flooding. By tomorrow night there will be 21 inches of water in the main convention hall. We've rented a couple of empty retail buildings by the Interstate, and we're putting vendors there. Each vendor will get a 10 foot by 10 foot space." We had paid for a 10 foot by 20 foot space and we had a trailer full of stuff for that size booth. So I said "Can we get a refund of our booth fee given the circumstances." The answer - "No. We're having a show and we have a booth for you so no full refund. However, we will refund part of your fee since your not getting all the space you paid for. The Vendor Chairperson will get back to you on the details. If you don't take the booth we have for you, you forfeit the entire fee."
What could we do. We had just driven 10 hours and paid for a week of hotel rooms plus our daughter's air fare (all non-refundable). So we headed to the abandoned Circuit City. The facility was alive with workers setting up booths. Unfortunately, the booths were 8 feet wide and 12 feet deep. If you put one table in the front of the booth nobody could get in it. We went to the spot where our booth was being set up only to find a giant black oil stain right in the middle of it. Judy was was in tears. We had committed substantial funds to the show so far (well into 4 figures), and that didn't include the meals we would have during the week and gas for the trip home. I could read her mind - "Why did I decide to come to Paducah? What possessed me to start a quilt business? Why was I born?" The "Holy Grail" of quilt shows was not off to an auspicious start.
There was nothing else we could do that day, so we left Circuit City and went to find our bed & breakfast. It was pretty far out of town down some country roads, but it was very nice. The only problem was that the owner didn't quite understand that we were there to work, not have a romantic weekend. Breakfast had to be on the table a 7:30 am sharp so we could get to the show on time. She did a pretty good job of hitting the deadline, but I could tell she wasn't happy about it.
The next day was set up day, so after a good night's sleep and an excellent breakfast, Judy, Virginia and I headed back to Circuit City to see if we could make some lemonade out of this lemon.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Paducah, Part I
In my posts up to now I've tried to avoid a lot of "inside baseball" talk regarding the quilt show circuit. It's mostly technical stuff and not real interesting unless you're in the business. However, I do need to give you some background regarding the American Quilters Society (AQS) show in Paducah, Kentucky so you can better understand what we went through and why we were so thrilled to be there.
Paducah, Kentucky (population 25,000) is the home of the AQS, (one of the world's largest publishers of quilting books and magazines), the National Quilt Museum, Eleanor Burns, the first lady of quilting TV shows, and Hancock's of Paducah one of the largest quilt shops in the country. One week each year, the population of Paducah literally doubles as quilting enthusiasts from around the world descend on the town. The prize for the Best in Show quilt is $20,000 and a spot in the National Quilt Museum. The AQS sponsors a show in the Main Expo Center with about 200 vendors and a smaller show on Kentucky Avenue. At the same time, The Rotary Club of Paducah sponsors a show with 50 vendors. Every vacant storefront in Paducah has "pop up shops" with vendors from across the country. There are additional vendors in the the big mall in town and Eleanor Burns brings in warehouses of fabric for the week. Every sewing machine manufacturer and fabric company is there, not to mention some of the largest quilt shops in the country. Hotel reservations must be made a year in advance.
When we lived in California and I wasn't paying much attention to quilting, Judy announced that she and her mother were going to Paducah for the show. I said, "are you nuts? You're going all the way to Paducah for a quilt show?". Judy looked me in the eye and said "yes, dear. We'll be gone a few days. Take care of yourself and don't drink too much (who me?).
Early in 2011 we were contacted by the AQS vendor chairperson for Paducah. She said there was a cancellation and would we like to sell there. We couldn't believe it. Paducah! The major leagues of quilting! In less than 18 months we had gone from the Guild Show in Hendersonville to being vendors at what is arguably the most prestigious quilt show in the world. Before we accepted, we had to make sure that we had a place to stay there. After a good deal of searching, we found a bed and breakfast 20 miles from Paducah with rooms available. We got back to AQS and signed up for a 200 sq. ft. booth in the main expo center. We were truly in the big time!
Judy's mother wanted to come with us. We figured we could us the additional staffing. Judy mentioned that the aisles could get so full it was hard to move. Plus, the show runs 10 hours a day for 4 days and it can be a real grind. We also figured it would be a chance to spend some time with our daughter Lea who lived in California at the time. So we paid for her to fly to Paducah The 4 of us would work the show.
The week of the show we loaded every piece of fabric we owned, put Judy's mom in the back seat, and full of optimism and some trepidation, we headed for Paducah. Stay tuned for Part II.
Paducah, Kentucky (population 25,000) is the home of the AQS, (one of the world's largest publishers of quilting books and magazines), the National Quilt Museum, Eleanor Burns, the first lady of quilting TV shows, and Hancock's of Paducah one of the largest quilt shops in the country. One week each year, the population of Paducah literally doubles as quilting enthusiasts from around the world descend on the town. The prize for the Best in Show quilt is $20,000 and a spot in the National Quilt Museum. The AQS sponsors a show in the Main Expo Center with about 200 vendors and a smaller show on Kentucky Avenue. At the same time, The Rotary Club of Paducah sponsors a show with 50 vendors. Every vacant storefront in Paducah has "pop up shops" with vendors from across the country. There are additional vendors in the the big mall in town and Eleanor Burns brings in warehouses of fabric for the week. Every sewing machine manufacturer and fabric company is there, not to mention some of the largest quilt shops in the country. Hotel reservations must be made a year in advance.
When we lived in California and I wasn't paying much attention to quilting, Judy announced that she and her mother were going to Paducah for the show. I said, "are you nuts? You're going all the way to Paducah for a quilt show?". Judy looked me in the eye and said "yes, dear. We'll be gone a few days. Take care of yourself and don't drink too much (who me?).
Early in 2011 we were contacted by the AQS vendor chairperson for Paducah. She said there was a cancellation and would we like to sell there. We couldn't believe it. Paducah! The major leagues of quilting! In less than 18 months we had gone from the Guild Show in Hendersonville to being vendors at what is arguably the most prestigious quilt show in the world. Before we accepted, we had to make sure that we had a place to stay there. After a good deal of searching, we found a bed and breakfast 20 miles from Paducah with rooms available. We got back to AQS and signed up for a 200 sq. ft. booth in the main expo center. We were truly in the big time!
Judy's mother wanted to come with us. We figured we could us the additional staffing. Judy mentioned that the aisles could get so full it was hard to move. Plus, the show runs 10 hours a day for 4 days and it can be a real grind. We also figured it would be a chance to spend some time with our daughter Lea who lived in California at the time. So we paid for her to fly to Paducah The 4 of us would work the show.
The week of the show we loaded every piece of fabric we owned, put Judy's mom in the back seat, and full of optimism and some trepidation, we headed for Paducah. Stay tuned for Part II.
Monday, June 9, 2014
We went to Philadelphia, but we wished it was closed!
In my last post we had left Cincinnati and were headed to Philadelphia for another show. We had a couple of extra days between shows, so we decided to visit the Amish country. We had a great time. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary at Mueller's Smorgasbord and hit a bunch of yarn shops (Judy is a knitter too). On to Philadelphia.
The hotel we booked through Priceline had seen better days. As I was going back to the car to get a suitcase, a door opened on our floor and a very buxom young lady stepped out in a very low cut top, high heels, lots of make up and perfume. We rode down the elevator together and she quickly walked through the lobby and into a waiting cab. I suspect she was in the hotel for commercial purposes, and not the kind that Judy and I were. Then I saw a man carrying a rifle in the parking lot. I was concerned until I found out that there was a gun show at the hotel that weekend.
The show was located in a huge old warehouse that smelled of tires. We were in the far corner of the show as far away as you could get from the main entrance. It took over a hour for the attendees to filter back to our area. Worse, we were across the aisle from someone demonstrating ergonomic rotary fabric cutters. For 4 days we heard the same demonstration over and over and over again. I WAS impressed at her enthusiasm for these ergonomic rotary fabric cutters. The 4th day she was just as bubbly as the first. I almost bought one for that reason alone. What I wasn't so enthusiastic about is going into the Ladies room by mistake. Know that 90% of the attendees of a quilt show are women. When things are slow I often say that "it's as quiet as the Men's room at a quilt show". On the first day of the show I was washing my hands in what I thought was the Men's room and two women walked in. I said "ladies your in the wrong room, to which they replied, no sir, YOU'RE in the wrong room". I went outside and found that the show promoters had changed the sign from the day before when we were setting up. In my defense, I suspect it was one of the few ladies rooms with urinals.
Sales were beyond lousy, then disaster struck. On the night before the last day of the show Judy and I got food poisoning. It was the worst possible time for that to happen. We had to man the booth the next day, pack it up, and drive to a hotel we booked and paid for that was 200 miles from Philadelphia. I thought about calling the show promoters and having them tear down our booth and pack it for us. By morning we weren't feeling too awful so I told Judy that we would get through the day in stages. Stage 1 - pack our bags and load the car. Stage 2 - Open our booth at the show and sell for the day. Stage 3 - Load the booth into the trailer. Stage 4 - drive to the hotel. Long story short, we made it to the hotel, but not before getting lost trying to find it. When we finally got to our room, Judy developed a migraine, threw up in the trash can by the bed and slept for 12 hours.
On the long ride home we had time to reflect on the previous 2 weeks and plan our next move. All of the profits we had made up to that time were wiped out on 1 trip. I felt like Tommy Lasorda, the legendary manager of the LA Dodgers when he told reporters that, "This freaking job is not that freaking easy!" Only he didn't say "freaking". Judy and I couldn't agree more.
My next couple of posts will be about our experience selling at the Holy Grail of quilt shows, the AQS Show in Paducah.
The hotel we booked through Priceline had seen better days. As I was going back to the car to get a suitcase, a door opened on our floor and a very buxom young lady stepped out in a very low cut top, high heels, lots of make up and perfume. We rode down the elevator together and she quickly walked through the lobby and into a waiting cab. I suspect she was in the hotel for commercial purposes, and not the kind that Judy and I were. Then I saw a man carrying a rifle in the parking lot. I was concerned until I found out that there was a gun show at the hotel that weekend.
The show was located in a huge old warehouse that smelled of tires. We were in the far corner of the show as far away as you could get from the main entrance. It took over a hour for the attendees to filter back to our area. Worse, we were across the aisle from someone demonstrating ergonomic rotary fabric cutters. For 4 days we heard the same demonstration over and over and over again. I WAS impressed at her enthusiasm for these ergonomic rotary fabric cutters. The 4th day she was just as bubbly as the first. I almost bought one for that reason alone. What I wasn't so enthusiastic about is going into the Ladies room by mistake. Know that 90% of the attendees of a quilt show are women. When things are slow I often say that "it's as quiet as the Men's room at a quilt show". On the first day of the show I was washing my hands in what I thought was the Men's room and two women walked in. I said "ladies your in the wrong room, to which they replied, no sir, YOU'RE in the wrong room". I went outside and found that the show promoters had changed the sign from the day before when we were setting up. In my defense, I suspect it was one of the few ladies rooms with urinals.
Sales were beyond lousy, then disaster struck. On the night before the last day of the show Judy and I got food poisoning. It was the worst possible time for that to happen. We had to man the booth the next day, pack it up, and drive to a hotel we booked and paid for that was 200 miles from Philadelphia. I thought about calling the show promoters and having them tear down our booth and pack it for us. By morning we weren't feeling too awful so I told Judy that we would get through the day in stages. Stage 1 - pack our bags and load the car. Stage 2 - Open our booth at the show and sell for the day. Stage 3 - Load the booth into the trailer. Stage 4 - drive to the hotel. Long story short, we made it to the hotel, but not before getting lost trying to find it. When we finally got to our room, Judy developed a migraine, threw up in the trash can by the bed and slept for 12 hours.
On the long ride home we had time to reflect on the previous 2 weeks and plan our next move. All of the profits we had made up to that time were wiped out on 1 trip. I felt like Tommy Lasorda, the legendary manager of the LA Dodgers when he told reporters that, "This freaking job is not that freaking easy!" Only he didn't say "freaking". Judy and I couldn't agree more.
My next couple of posts will be about our experience selling at the Holy Grail of quilt shows, the AQS Show in Paducah.
Friday, June 6, 2014
Fun in New Hampshire and then "the Bad Trip"
Our next Quilt Show turned out to be our favorite ever. Each August, The World Quilt Competition has a stop in Manchester, New Hampshire where the competition quilts are part of a large quilt show. Our profile was rising at this point and we were invited to become vendors at the show. I had visited New England once and Judy had never been, so we decided to accept the offer. Right away, our friends warned us to stay away from I-95 and to take I-81 through Western Virginia instead. The drive was beautiful. We went through Pennsylvania to Binghamton, New York, East through Albany and Route 9 through Vermont. Route 9 through Vermont was amazing. I can only imagine what it's like during leaf turn. We'd booked a room at the Show hotel, so all we had to do each morning is go down the elevator, have breakfast at the hotel and walk into the Exhibition Hall. It was like being on vacation.
Two new things happened at that show. For the first time we had a line of customers in our booth waiting to check out. Judy was ecstatic! Also, we sold out of some of our fabric. Judy had purchased fabric panels designed by Stephanie Brandenburg (see photo). When they arrived at the house I said "You've got to be kidding. Who's going to buy that?" Judy just smiled and said "Just let me buy the inventory, dear. You stick to driving the truck and setting up the booth." Naturally, we sold out of the panels in New Hampshire. Judy was nice enough not to say I told you so, but I know she was thinking it. We left New Hampshire thinking "We've got this quilt show business figured out". Hah! I'm sure the quilt show gods had a good laugh at that one.
A month later we were scheduled for shows on consecutive weekends. The first was in Cincinnati and the second in Philadelphia. It would require us to be on the road for about two weeks. We made it to Cincinnati after driving through one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever experienced. At any moment I expected to be washed off the road, and/or a tornado was going to land on our truck. It was a portent of the trip.
Across from our booth in Cincinnati was a vendor from Michigan. Their booth was 5 times the size of ours and stacked from floor to ceiling with fabric. I asked them how many bolts of fabric they brought. "About 1,500" To give you some perspective, our quilt shop in Concord has about 500 bolts. We hoped that people who went to their booth would shop at ours also. No such luck. Believe me, there is nothing worse than watching someone across the aisle make sale after sale after sale while you sit there and watch. Sales weren't terrible, but it feels much worse when someone is selling more in a day that you are at the whole show.
So we packed up and headed for Philadelphia hoping that show would be better. It wasn't. What happened there will require a whole additional post. Stay tuned.
.
Two new things happened at that show. For the first time we had a line of customers in our booth waiting to check out. Judy was ecstatic! Also, we sold out of some of our fabric. Judy had purchased fabric panels designed by Stephanie Brandenburg (see photo). When they arrived at the house I said "You've got to be kidding. Who's going to buy that?" Judy just smiled and said "Just let me buy the inventory, dear. You stick to driving the truck and setting up the booth." Naturally, we sold out of the panels in New Hampshire. Judy was nice enough not to say I told you so, but I know she was thinking it. We left New Hampshire thinking "We've got this quilt show business figured out". Hah! I'm sure the quilt show gods had a good laugh at that one.A month later we were scheduled for shows on consecutive weekends. The first was in Cincinnati and the second in Philadelphia. It would require us to be on the road for about two weeks. We made it to Cincinnati after driving through one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever experienced. At any moment I expected to be washed off the road, and/or a tornado was going to land on our truck. It was a portent of the trip.
Across from our booth in Cincinnati was a vendor from Michigan. Their booth was 5 times the size of ours and stacked from floor to ceiling with fabric. I asked them how many bolts of fabric they brought. "About 1,500" To give you some perspective, our quilt shop in Concord has about 500 bolts. We hoped that people who went to their booth would shop at ours also. No such luck. Believe me, there is nothing worse than watching someone across the aisle make sale after sale after sale while you sit there and watch. Sales weren't terrible, but it feels much worse when someone is selling more in a day that you are at the whole show.
So we packed up and headed for Philadelphia hoping that show would be better. It wasn't. What happened there will require a whole additional post. Stay tuned.
.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
We Hit the Big Time - and It Hits Us!
At the end of my last post, Judy and I had completed our first quilt show. We did a few more shows and started developing our "war stories". Near the end of day one of a two day show in Statesville, the promoters announced that a major snow storm was approaching and we should get the heck out of there. The snow was just starting when we began loading out, and by the time we were done there was 3" of snow on our vehicle. Judy is a native Californian. Not only does she hate the white stuff, she doesn't understand why there's snow at less that 10,000 feet. At another show the guild needed walkie talkies to open the front door, since opening the front door and back door of the venue at the same time would cause a strong wind to come through and blow down the quilt displays. At another show the emergency exit door was in the middle of our booth. I called that one "boothus interruptus".
Our sales were increasing, but were not what we wanted. My job search was going nowhere fast so we decided that I would focus full time on our business and we would become vendors at "The Big Shows". "The Big Show" is a whole different animal from a guild show. The shows are in large convention centers, have anywhere from 200 to 500 vendors, and attendance between 20,000 and 60,000. We'd be competing against the retail divisions of multi million dollar fabric and thread companies and some of the largest quilt shops in the country. Our adventures at these shows is going to require several posts.
Our first Big Show was the American Quilters Society (AQS) Show in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was there I learned the term "marshaling yard". The loading dock at the Knoxville Convention Center is not big enough for 200 vendors to use at the same time, so we had to go to a marshaling yard about a half a mile from the convention center. You wait in line until you're number is called then you drive to the loading dock. By that time, we had purchased a 5' by 8' trailer to carry our stuff. Waiting in the marshaling yard was like a cartoon, with my little bitty trailer flanked by the large trucks and trailers of our fellow vendors. If I drew big eyeballs on it, it would be the little trailer that could. When we made it to the loading dock, we received help unloading the trailer from prisoners who were doing community service. When I wanted to tip the guys, I was told to "give the money to the boss, he'll dole it out."
Since we were first time vendors, we we were assigned
a small booth in a far corner of the convention center. Before the show opened each day, I was able to look at the quilts that were in the competition. I was totally blown away by the skills and artistry of the fabric artists who had quilts on display. If you're ever in a city with an AQS show, I recommend that you attend just to see the quilts. There will be an AQS show in Charlotte the end of July. Another thing I'll never forget is an exhibition of quilts for and by victims of AIDS. I got very emotional and had to walk away.
The show went well. The instructors from the AQS took a liking to our dupioni silks and we sold a lot. Only one slightly embarrassing incident. A customer made a purchase and gave me her credit card. When I asked for her ID, Judy said "That's Alex Andersen (you idiot) you don't need ID." As you might suspect, Ms. Andersen is a who's who person in quilting.
One thing about Knoxville, the restaurants are fantastic and very reasonably priced. It was a fun show. Most importantly, we realized that we could successfully compete against the big guys.
Our sales were increasing, but were not what we wanted. My job search was going nowhere fast so we decided that I would focus full time on our business and we would become vendors at "The Big Shows". "The Big Show" is a whole different animal from a guild show. The shows are in large convention centers, have anywhere from 200 to 500 vendors, and attendance between 20,000 and 60,000. We'd be competing against the retail divisions of multi million dollar fabric and thread companies and some of the largest quilt shops in the country. Our adventures at these shows is going to require several posts.
Our first Big Show was the American Quilters Society (AQS) Show in Knoxville, Tennessee. It was there I learned the term "marshaling yard". The loading dock at the Knoxville Convention Center is not big enough for 200 vendors to use at the same time, so we had to go to a marshaling yard about a half a mile from the convention center. You wait in line until you're number is called then you drive to the loading dock. By that time, we had purchased a 5' by 8' trailer to carry our stuff. Waiting in the marshaling yard was like a cartoon, with my little bitty trailer flanked by the large trucks and trailers of our fellow vendors. If I drew big eyeballs on it, it would be the little trailer that could. When we made it to the loading dock, we received help unloading the trailer from prisoners who were doing community service. When I wanted to tip the guys, I was told to "give the money to the boss, he'll dole it out."Since we were first time vendors, we we were assigned
a small booth in a far corner of the convention center. Before the show opened each day, I was able to look at the quilts that were in the competition. I was totally blown away by the skills and artistry of the fabric artists who had quilts on display. If you're ever in a city with an AQS show, I recommend that you attend just to see the quilts. There will be an AQS show in Charlotte the end of July. Another thing I'll never forget is an exhibition of quilts for and by victims of AIDS. I got very emotional and had to walk away.
The show went well. The instructors from the AQS took a liking to our dupioni silks and we sold a lot. Only one slightly embarrassing incident. A customer made a purchase and gave me her credit card. When I asked for her ID, Judy said "That's Alex Andersen (you idiot) you don't need ID." As you might suspect, Ms. Andersen is a who's who person in quilting.
One thing about Knoxville, the restaurants are fantastic and very reasonably priced. It was a fun show. Most importantly, we realized that we could successfully compete against the big guys.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Thelma and Louise (AKA Judy and Fred) Hit the Road
In January of 2009 Judy and her mother attended the Quilting and Needle Arts Extravaganza in Statesville. Judy took one look at the vendor booths and the crowds and thought "I can do this". From that simple thought, our lives were changed forever. In the Spring of that year Judy did all the things you need to do to establish a business. Obtained licenses from the City of Concord and the State of North Carolina, built a Web site, chose the name for the business, ordered inventory, established a business checking account, DBA., etc. She also asked me to take some time off of my job search to wheedle as many invitations as I could to be a vendor at quilt shows.
The first show we were able to get in to was for the Western North Carolina Quilt Guild in late June. The timing couldn't have been better. Our daughter Lea, our son-in-law Cid and our three grandchildren were visiting from California. Lea and Judy went to Hendersonville the day before the show to set up the booth and I followed the next day with my mother-in-law and the 3 kids in tow. This type of show, referred to as a "Guild Show" is the most common of the quilt shows. Every two years, quilt guilds have an event where their members display their latest quilts and sewing projects, and have a contest for the best quilt. Vendor booth rentals offset the cost of the venue and the cost of advertising the event. The vendor chairpersons are guild volunteers who, as we found out, are well meaning but often clueless about managing vendors. That's OK though, every guild member and volunteer is a potential customer so we vendors bend over backward to make a good impression.
The Hendersonville show went fine, except that it was held in late June with no air conditioning in the venue. The attendees were literally fainting in the aisles. Wonder of wonders, we actually sold something! I had visions of Judy and I sitting in our booth for 3 days with 0 sales. We didn't sell a lot, but we did sell enough to encourage us to move on to the next show.
Never having been a vendor at quit shows, I was pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of fellow vendors. Quilt shows aren't busy the whole time and you get to know your fellow vendors pretty well. Although we are competitors, we act more like co-workers.
Hendersonville was a positive experience - Judy and I were on our way.
The first show we were able to get in to was for the Western North Carolina Quilt Guild in late June. The timing couldn't have been better. Our daughter Lea, our son-in-law Cid and our three grandchildren were visiting from California. Lea and Judy went to Hendersonville the day before the show to set up the booth and I followed the next day with my mother-in-law and the 3 kids in tow. This type of show, referred to as a "Guild Show" is the most common of the quilt shows. Every two years, quilt guilds have an event where their members display their latest quilts and sewing projects, and have a contest for the best quilt. Vendor booth rentals offset the cost of the venue and the cost of advertising the event. The vendor chairpersons are guild volunteers who, as we found out, are well meaning but often clueless about managing vendors. That's OK though, every guild member and volunteer is a potential customer so we vendors bend over backward to make a good impression.
The Hendersonville show went fine, except that it was held in late June with no air conditioning in the venue. The attendees were literally fainting in the aisles. Wonder of wonders, we actually sold something! I had visions of Judy and I sitting in our booth for 3 days with 0 sales. We didn't sell a lot, but we did sell enough to encourage us to move on to the next show.
Never having been a vendor at quit shows, I was pleasantly surprised at the friendliness of fellow vendors. Quilt shows aren't busy the whole time and you get to know your fellow vendors pretty well. Although we are competitors, we act more like co-workers.
Hendersonville was a positive experience - Judy and I were on our way.
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