| HAYWARD ZUCCHINI FESTIVAL |
| Dates: August 21-22 Hayward, CA |
Friday, August 20, 2010. Usual setup day for this event in fenced-off Kennedy Park on Hesperian Blvd. in Hayward. We arrived there around 12:30 and found our spot quite easily. This time, instead of 8 feet, we had slightly over 10 feet. I often wonder if I would rather have a different space. I guess all of us are not totally pleased with any spot that we get at this show or perhaps any other event. We always wonder if we would get better traffic flow, less sunshine, more sunshine, less wind, etc., had we been somewhere else. I just stick it out in this spot year after year. Kind of like a marriage, for better or for worse. I saw a number of vendor friends setting up and talked to them for a bit before proceeding. One of them, who sells clothing, was selling in Tyson Wells in January and was located in row behind me there and was about 6 spaces down. He decided to leave one day before the tornado on January 21. I had to show him pictures of the destruction there and told him that the three back rows were completely wiped out by 71mph winds. He said that he left on the day before because he felt something coming. Smart man. It was coming all right. The lady next to him lost 4 canopies and many thousands of dollars of hats. You can read about this.
WE SET UP the canopy and the grids and placed our merchandise inside. We didn't set up very much else and put the covers on and secured with our bungies, etc., and then departed.
August 21. IDIOTS RULE? NO, THEY DO NOT!!
We arrived at the entrance to the Zucchini Festival around 6:15am. I pulled up and was greeted by the 'gatekeeper.' I pointed to my 'vendor parking permit' which I had placed on my dashboard. I wanted to get in to unload some more things along with my wife and then park afterward.
The head zookeeper in charge of the gate approached my car and I opened my door. I showed him my pass and he wasn't happy with that. We had received these 6x10 orange 'vendor passes' in the mail. Not good enough. So, he next asked me for my map (which had been sent to me weeks before). Once again I pointed to the vendor pass on my dash. "What's going on here?" I took my map out and handed it to him. He took a look at it and began checking to see if my space was marked, which it wasn't and he's starting to make a big deal over it. I told him that they never marked it and I had to talk to Rich to find out my space number. Not good enough for him. Honestly now, who the hell is going to come here at 6:00 in the morning in a white van with their business website pasted on the side and a mess of stuff inside the along with us, a 60-year old couple? I don't need this crap. He then got on his Dick Tracy Walkie-Talkie and asked that person if he should let me in. I was shocked. I looked at the guy and told him that "I have been doing this show for at least ten year's and I have never had to put up with stupid s&%t like this." He then asked for the name of my business and I told him and he relayed that to the other guy. "Why are you fucking with me?" I asked him. He asked me again for the name of my business and there was a pause. " I have my vendor pass right there and there is no reason for me to go through this bunch of garbage."
Once again he asked me for my business name and I told him. "This is ridiculous. I don't have time for this. I need to set up." I heard him ask again "Should I let him in?" I was preparing to just leave him there and take off. I was getting pissed. He really didn't get an answer from the people he was talking to. I don't think that they wanted to be bothered with this stupid crap. He stepped away from my door and told me "Okay, you can go, but stop by Admin after you are done." "Admin, what the hell is that," I said to him. "I'm not stopping by anywhere. They can come see me if they want to, I have something to say. This is stupid." I then drove away and never saw hide nor tail of them. I heard from another vendor that this guy was giving a number of other vendors a hard time also. That's sad. That sounds like the kind of stuff I had to put up with at the Oakland Post Office before I retired.
THERE WERE HUGE open spaces in areas where there were booths in past years. Maybe missing 30-40 vendors from last year. A couple years ago, we lost some 80 vendors because the show had been so slow in years past. We recovered a good share of those last year, but this year has to be the fewest vendors we have had there.
PICKED UP A COUPLE LOAVES of Zucchini Bread once again. Tasted great of course. I always make sure to pick up some every year.
CROWDS WERE EXTREMELY LIGHT during the morning hours, as usual and as we got into the afternoon, things picked up. We had very few sales in those first few hours as people were just strolling and 'lollygagging' (new word used a few weeks ago by a lady) around. I guess they wanted to hit the food first and listen to some music and perhaps soak some suds. You had families there and you had the teens, you had a small number of ethnic representation; Chinese, Fro-Am and a lot of Mexicants, bikers, tatooe lovers of America, Jerry Springer's right and left wingers..... they were all there. However Urine Nation was not represented as THERE WERE NO DOGS. Not a single one, thank gosh. Last week in Stockton at the Filipino Fiesta there, I saw only one dog that must have been the head sniffer. In certain areas of the Philippines (and Hong Kong, China, etc., also) dogs are considered to be a delicacy and you can see the meat barbecued on a stick.
Sunday, August 22
We arrived at the festival around 8:30am. Not too many people there at that time. Doesn't start until 10:00. Few people during the first couple hours. Probably in church, sleeping in with their hangovers or hitting the 'dollar stores.'
THE FOOD. Picked up an Italian late morning and it was okay. The food lines were really long around the middle part of the afternoon. I never have seen them like that. Seemed like two different shows that were divided by the sidewalk. On one side you have the food booths and entertainment. Long ass lines for many of the food booths and quite a bit of people hanging in the area eating and watching the performers. On the other side of the sidewalk where the vendors were located, you have a much smaller group of people and they weren't buying much. We had perhaps one good hour the entire weekend and that was after our neighbors (another chiropractor) left and they had two young ladies soliciting in the front and back of their booths. I guess you could call that the 'double hernia' as both of them would wander about 5-10 feet away and pose an obstruction to people walking around as these individuals tried to avoid them. I would too. You know, I am really getting sick and tired of these people.......chiropractors, non-profits. They should stick them way in the back someplace where they don't bother the vendors. I lose sales because of this.
TRIED SOME FRIED MUSHROOMS for $7.00 (ouch) and garlic fries ($5.00). The mushrooms were okay and the garlic fries had too much garlic and I couldn't finish them. I passed on the Philly Cheeses which were being sold by these Greek people. I had one a couple years ago from them and it tasted like a mixture of all the other food that they were selling and I don't dare try it again from them. There was quite a variety of food at the Festival and some of it was tempting. However, I have to keep my expenses down. Some of it must have been pretty decent because of the long lines both afternoons.
IF YOU WERE LOCATED IN THE MAIN VENDOR AREA and you remained within your booth Sunday afternoon and never set foot outside, you never would have seen how crowded it was on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line. We had a fair amount of people walking around back there, but you didn't have enough to support the number of vendors, which was not that many. I would say less than 50. Hayward is not the promised land and there is not much money here. Thank gosh they charge $5.00 admission which will keep out a good share of the riff-raff.
THE WEATHER WAS GREAT ON SUNDAY. We finally had a complete day of sun around here and temps were in the 70s. Our booth was located in the shade and it was very pleasant throughout the day. Here are pictures of some of the vendors.
Here is my story of the week. I hope you enjoy it.
NEGOTIATION 101. MANY PEOPLE WERE TRYING their skills in the fine art of Negotiation. This is happening more and more each and every week. Oh gosh, what the hell am I going to do with these people! Okay, so two elderly ladies come over to the back of my booth and one of them is interested in the very last Messenger Bag that I had. It's a very nice bad and quite handy for a lot of people. Much versatility and these can sell for around $24.95 in the right markets. I told her that it was fifteen dollars and that this was a good deal and I originally was selling these bags for $18 until the Great Depression came along. We'll call these two characters Mabel (purchaser) andSadie (her negotiator). Sadie looked at the bag and noticed a crease running across the top of the part that flips over. She was not in favor of Mabel buying the bag and she just seems miserable and makes every effort to convince her not to buy the bag. Real friend, huh? My objective is to keep that bag in her hands and to shut Sadie up. Many times you will have two people come around with one trying to make a purchase while the other talker him or her out of it. Husbands, Mothers, partners, drinking buddies, friends, they will all try it. When I see that about to happen, I give them a reduced price if they buy two and that will work.
Mabel just adores it and has a specific purpose for it. I don't have to sell her on it and the only thing that I have to tell her is that it is expandable and is able to hold a laptop, even though I can't picture this 65 year old lady hauling around a computer. I mean like she's not going to drag it over to some coffee shop to read her email while sipping a cup of Mocha Java or whatever. She had another purchase in mind. Sadie was doing everything she could to talk Mabel out of buying it. When she realizes that Mabel is going to purchase it regardless, she then spurts out "Can you knock off a couple dollars because of the crease. It looks like something was laying on it." I took the bag and checked it out. Yes, there was a crease; there was no denying that. "I don't think that's a major problem and the crease should come out." Any iron will take care of that and I am sure that she has ironed zillions of clothes in her days. "No. Fifteen dollars is the price and that is a good deal." Since Mabel loved that bag, she ignored her friend (I'm sure she is used to her by now). She paid fifteen dollars and that was that and they both left after the purchase. Now, the moral of the story is that if Mabel had been asking for $2 off, I probably would have given it to her. But I just despise people who try to find little defects in merchandise and try to ask for a discount. My items are priced low enough.
EARLIER IN THE DAY, I had a ten-year old boy whom I will call Johnny-5 for obvious reasons. He picked up one of our swords and asked "how much is this?" I was sitting in the back of my booth and told him "Eight Dollars." He stepped over to me with the sword in his right hand and his left hand in his right pocket. He pulls out a five-dollar bill and tells me this is all he's got. Oh no, here we go again. He's probably got a wad of twenties in his pocket. He must have taken lessons from that guy in Stockton (Barrio Fiesta) that pulled something similar to this last week. "That's all I have." 'Yah, right' I thought to myself. Can you give me a vendor discount? Remember now, this is a 10-year old boy saying this. I look at him and give him one of my more serious looks. "YOU are a vendor. Where are you located?" "Well actually, it's my mom and dad. I'm just helping them." "Ohhhh," I responded as he pointed to where the booth was. My curiousity was aroused. "How did you do yesterday?" He looked at me and said "Oh we did good." So, at that point I decided that further interrogation was necessary.
You know, I never ask people how much they make. That is pretty much forbidden to ask that question of people that you do not know very well. But I did this time because if he answered that question, he would open the door for me. "How much did you make yesterday?" Then he told me. That's something you really need your kids not to do. He said that they made '$1,000.' I found that hard to believe because I had taken notice to the number of people walking around in that area, and just could not justify a figure like that. Well, I decided to continue with this. Nobody else in my booth, so what the heck. I proceed. "That's pretty good. You made a lot more than I did. You made all that money and here you are just showing me a five-dollar bill and asking me for $3.00 off." "Well," he answered. "They didn't give me any money." "Ohhhhh. I see." I decided to sell it to him for the five bucks anyhow. I guess you might say I got my three dollars worth of entertainment and the kid came up with a pretty good story. He then told me that his dad is giving massages, so I asked him how much. "They are usually a dollar a minute." My next question was "Can you get me a discount on one. Maybe something like $10 for fifteen minutes?" He told me that he would try. Three minutes later he came over and told me that we had a deal and I asked him if I could come over right now. He went back to his dad asked him and came back and told me I could get one right now. I followed him over to the booth and that's when he told me some very important information. "You are the 28th person that my dad has massaged." "Thank you," I told him. "I am glad to hear that."
During my massage, the boy's farther explained to me that he is trying to teach the kid how to negotiate and he had sent in off on his way and he ended up coming to my booth.
BETTY BOOP. I'm sitting in back of my booth again and along comes this 42-year old lady. "I was wondering if I could exchange this (Betty Boop) shirt for one of your others. I had only brought 4-5 shirts with me. These shirts were excellent seller's here for many year's while the usual Betty Boop craze went through another rejuvenation. Sales tapered off since and I hadn't sold these shirts here for 3-4 years. She pulled out the shirt and I examined it. Excellent condition. There was no damage to it. No spots. No nothing. Except there was one thing that was wrong. I hadn't sold her this shirt this weekend. I really didn't ask her any more questions as I tried to recall when I might have sold it to her and I am trying to figure out when and where I sold it to her OR if I was the one that sold it to her. Should I bust her on this? It was an XL and I only brought mediums with me. It was one of my Route 66 shirts. A number of people had asked me for XL's throughout the weekend, so I decided that my chances of selling that shirt as opposed to one of the mediums that I had were better. So, I exchanged it without putting her through the third degree. People will try anything. Perhaps she grew tired of the shirt and she thought that she would give it a try.
ONCE AGAIN, the music went on until 7:30. I can't understand why these people can't close the show any earlier because the vendors end up having to load up and drive around in the dark. Helloooooo. Many of these events end between 5-6:00pm, but these people continue to be stubborn. Is it going to take a serious accident to change things? I am just talking about 30 minutes that would make a difference.
WE BEGAN PACKING AT 5:50 and were done (except grids and canopy) and were done at 6:45. I left our space and walked toward the main parking lot where my vehicle was. I talked to the people in charge of the gate there and they told me that we wouldn't be able to get in until 7:30.