After a week at the merchant area of the Armada Fair, I thought I’d share in a couple of merchant lies that I picked up on. Both of them have to do with the contests you enter. Just be aware of these:
- "A chance to win $1000 off home improvements" I asked the booth operators what the chances of winning are. They are 100%. If you put your name down you’ll get $1000 off. For them it’s not about the $1000, it’s about you agreeing to the estimate.
- "Enter our drawing for a $250 gift certificate" No one ever wins. All they want is your contact information for their mailing list.
See, the thing about a fair is that it only lasts a week. There is no regulation of any kind as to whom is there. If you pay the money, you get a spot. If you pay $100 cash for a craft… do you even know the persons name whom you bought something from? Where would you return it? What would you do if you found out that they sold you a "handmade craft" from India and not Indiana?
A lot of vendors didn’t like us very much by the end of the week. Sure, we drew a lot of traffic. Sure, we made a 1500 kids smile with free balloons. But at the end of the day we frustrated some vendors because our authenticity reflected on their fraud. The booths who sold honest products at an honest price did better because they looked at the long term gain instead of a one-time, 6 day profit.
I just hope we get a chance to go back in 2008. It was a monster win for KidsTown.
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