Hi Everyone! I'm hoping someone out there can give my a heads up. I'm doing my first Huff Promotions show this weekend at Tuttle Mall in Dublin, OH. It's the first year for this show and I've never worked with Huff before. Does anyone have any experience with them? Good, bad or indifferent? The mall at Christmas.... I'm just a WEE bit nervous! :-\
Thanks!!!!
Comments
Thank you so much Debbie!! Best lesson learned... check and/or post here BEFORE you sign up for a show. Wow! Let's just say, I'm sure I've joined you on the Black list! Hehe! I just happen to read this on my phone while I was waiting to check in Friday night, so at least I was now prepared for the worst... which was a good thing, cause that's exactly what I got!! I'll start at the beginning:
Friday night: Check in at 9pm.... 45 MINUTES TO CHECK IN! WTF!? There was ONE copy of the map and nothing taped on the floors to tell you where you might be. I'll leave out names, so "Director" had the only copy of the map and had to personally show everyone their spot. Can we say control freak?! She had to "explain to everyone HOW to set up correctly" Hummm, we got a 3 page instruction manual on what we could and couldn't do, that wasn't enough?! OK, fine, showing us all would have been OK if there was one area all the vendors were in... NOPE! We were scattered ALL though the mall! Thus, 45 flippin' minutes to even be shown my spot. At one point there are a good 12 of us just standing around waiting for Director to show up! It's already 9:45 and none of us know where we are! Director already has a cranky bunch of vendors on her hands.
I should note a few things here. 1, I'm a native New York City girl, now living in Columbus OH. My NY attitude can be a wee bit strong, I understand that and TRY to keep it in check. 2) I have a regular full time job, this started as a way to use my degree in jewelry design again and make some extra money to pay for my years as a starving artist in NYC. 3) I decided to do the show cause of course like everyone else, it's Christmas, the malls will be packed! I also only live 10 minutes from the mall, so no hotels, no major travel. My wonderful friends can come visit me and relieve me since I'll be there 15 HOURS on Saturday and 13 on Sunday!!
Once I FINALLY get shown my spot, it's almost 10:00 already. Keep in mind, I've already been at work all day and so has my fiance that is here to help me along with 2 of my good friends. I also have jewelry, and a display that I have manged to get so down pat that I can set up everything alone in an hour, including 3 tables, 2 easels, a 10 x 10 tent and the weights (I used to build sets for theaters). Well, 4 of us and we weren't done till 11:30!! Where we had to come in to load was so far away, and they wouldn't let us park in the fire lanes or anything to unload! Finally home at midnight just to be back there at 7:30am. I feel bad for the people who were traveling and in hotels for the weekend.
Saturday: There at 7:30am! Mall opens at 8:00. Director comes to "inspect" my booth... and ME, cause we have to look "professional." {{rolls eyes}} Fine, whatever. She comes at about 11:00. I haven't had a single sale, not even a looker yet, so I'm already freaky. At my inspection I was waiting for her to pull out a white glove! Essh! I did "pass" with a think MIGHT have been a slight smile. She hands me some paperwork which includes the Oktoberfest show in September. I mention that "Oh I was thinking of doing that show." She looks at me and says, "Well, jewelry fills up quickly!" extremely snotty! OK, yes, most shows do, I understand. I also have steampunk jewelry, very unique. I say that to her and she just makes some kind of "whatever" noise and leaves. OK, Hitler! Thanks!
Saturday, about 1:00: Hitler comes back around, "I'm leaving shortly, (as you said Debbie) she puts another vendor in charge. "If you have any problems, you can contact here." OK, fine. I was ready for that, thank you Debbie! :-) But why do WE get stuck here for 15 hours and YOU get to go home?! Grr!
Saturday, about 4:00: Vendors start finally FINDING each other! We are SO spread out all over I only saw one other vendor and she was 1) Hearing Aid information and 2) still a good 75 feet away from me.
Erin
I will pass on my experience with Huff's Promotion. I did my 1st show with them in October, at the Butler, PA mall. I only did Sat & Sun. Set up and teardown is after the mall closes. I went in on Friday, in the afternoon to talk to the show manager to get an idea of my spot & what I would have to work with. They showed me my spot - it was at the beginning of 1 of the isles leading in and out of the mall. Okay, I thought, a little out of the way, but I can work with it. Lot's of space on all 4 sides. It probably would not have been an issue, however, I sell jewelry & you need to know that the lighting in malls is not geared for that - you need lights. There was a plug, so I thought I was all set, right? Not. When I went back that evening to set up (they did let me start bringing in my setup at 8:30 rather than making me wait until 9:00 pm which was nice). I get everything set up, plug in the lights, and guess what, no electricity in the outlet. When I talked to the show manager about it, she basically shrugged her shoulders & walked away. It appears that they hire one of the vendors doing the show to be the show manager, so they are only concerned with their own sales, & really could not care less about you. Don't take that as gospel, but it certainly looked that way to me. I found out that they do absolutely no advertising of any kind, other than suppossedly mailing out postcards to a suppossed client listing that they have from previous shows. They did not even have a sign up anywhere inside or outside of the mall letting people know that there was a show there. Needless to say, hardly anything being sold was hand crafted. A lot of buy & sell, T-shirts & a lot of junk. So, there I sat in partial darkness for 2 days, did not sell one thing, paid for a hotel for 2 nights, etc. A dismal failure. I will never do another show with them again. One couple that was there selling swarovski jewelry (hand strung & lovely) said that unless you do a lot of shows with them, you may as well forget it. The total number of vendors - 12 - some show, huh! What a joke. I don't want to scare you, and since it is so close to Xmas, you may have a better shot at selling product - just make sure that you get what you need from them. They did have a form that they gave all vendors at the end to critique the show & offer suggestions. You could either fill it out there & give it to the show manager or you could bring it home & send them the info via email. Needless to say, I emailed them to let them know how dissatisfied I was, in very professional terms, by the way. I am probably blacklisted.
Yikes, Erin-Lynn -- I see you've gotten no answers to this question (and I can't help) but I think if you put this in the "discussions" you may get better attention. Good luck...