Do you think that traffic is traffic? The more traffic you have the better your business? If you only have a small amount of traffic you can not possible be successful?
Let’s talk about this thing that we all seem to want LOTS of…TRAFFIC.
I am the Professional Hoarder..The name alone should say it all.. I can not explain it…. I love junk. I like looking at it and like collecting it. I have an imagination that never stops when it comes to what most people would simply consider JUNK. I think I have been way ahead of my time in re-purposing things….. I have done that all my life.…..Anyway.. something happened this weekend that got me thinking about TRAFFIC.
Hubby and I love to go to auctions and flea markets… We went to a HUGE flea market over the weekend. There must of been 500 vendors set up selling their wares… Yes.. I was in my glory. Just like a kid at Christmas.. not knowing which aisle to go down first.
It was a beautiful day.. in fact we couldn’t of gotten more perfect weather if we tried… and then there were the people…… There had to of been at least 10,000 people there and it had been that way since the doors had opened at 7 in the morning. It was a constant flow of TRAFFIC TRAFFIC TRAFFIC.
Many people had planned ahead and brought their wagons to haul their purchases in. We saw many people unloading these wagons into their cars and then going back in to look for more treasures. It was indeed a great day to be alive if your into flea market shopping. I will fess up right here… I didn’t need a wagon…. everything we bought I put on my wrists and around my neck…. My Silly Hubby thinks I was buying to re-sell these wonderful finds…. don’t tell him.. but I am keeping all of them.. What part of Professional Hoarder does he not understand?
So while I look at things in the different booths.. Hubby talks to the vendors…. His favorite question is… “So.. How is business?”….. the answer was always the same… “Slow”….. Can you imagine????? Having 1000’s of people walk right by your booth…. and you say business is SLOW?????
Last year we set up our wares in a little town just south of us. The weather that week had been horrible. It had rained everyday…. in fact it rained right up until the day of the event… we were suppose to of been set up and ready to SELL at 9am….. the monsoon didn’t stop until 8:30am….. so we were a little late getting to the event.. it didn’t matter.. the other vendors were getting there the same time as we were….. There were 25 spaces that had been rented out>>> BUT only 7 of us showed up…. The sun came out and it turned into a beautiful warm day.
We ALL of course were at least an hour late getting set up.. but it didn’t matter. People were milling around, some were even helping us unpack the boxes…. I am going to say for the entire day there was probably not over 100 people that stopped by…. But you know what???? It ended up being a very profitable day.
So much for Traffic Traffic Traffic….. Would anyone care to explain that…..?
I would say it was Targeted Traffic.. BUT…. all 7 of us had great days… and we all sold different things.
You can be sure that we plan on going back to that place this year…… I might even hope for rain before the event.
We went to a wonderful well attended craft show a few months ago. They had lots of vendors and they also had a HUGE amount of TRAFFIC. It was a juror art show so nothing but the best was on display. I can not recall any booth at the moment except 1. The vendor was selling candy. The display was set up to looked like a candy store. A gal was out front taking orders and passing out samples… and 2 guys. dressed in starched white shirts… with black pants and black bow ties on. They wore the cutest matching hats and black striped arm bands….. People were lining up to see what was going on at that booth because the traffic was being STOPPED in the aisle…Once they were able to make their way to the front of the line and saw the wonderful presentation and were given samples… They were buying the candy….. So this tells me a gimmick would be a good thing.. Get that TRAFFIC to STOP and take notice.
I could set up an entire display and sell nothing but tea party items… I would wear my tea party hat and tea party dress….My outfit is really a sight to see. AND I have some of the most beautiful items for a tea party but unless I get that TRAFFIC to STOP>>>>To LOOK AND SEE it…. they will walk right on by ME…..
I always said that my mind runs over time… But I hope your able to see how NOT ALL TRAFFIC is the same…. Just gotta find the one that works best for you>>>>