I had previously become fond of baking sweets, and I had experienced selling them at a small bazaar organized by a friend. However, this time as ‘Nowhereland,’ I participated as a florist.
The preparation was quite challenging, but I think I managed to create a really lovely booth.
The power of flowers is remarkable. Just by placing flowers, they truly catch the eye.
My favorite display at the booth was definitely this easel.
I remade an IKEA children’s chalkboard that had been left untouched since my kids were no more too little.
I cut the board and drilled holes to insert flowers.
In the space below, I added the text ‘We are flower farmers from Cameron Highlands.’
I thought emphasizing the fact that we are flower farmers would be a good idea.
This easel indeed caught people’s attention, and many took photos with it. It’s heartening.
Husband in the midst of serving customers↓
As for the sales, the biggest challenge was determining how many flowers to bring. In the end, I brought too many. Over half of them remained unsold 😢. This might give the impression that the market participation was a failure, but that wasn’t entirely the case.
The reason for the unsold flowers wasn’t simply ‘because they didn’t sell.’ First of all, foot traffic at the market was low. Speaking with fellow vendors, it seemed that the day before had seen more visitors. Still, even with the limited traffic, we had customers coming in from the morning until around noon, keeping my husband and me busy with customer service.
Around lunchtime, it seemed that fewer people were coming. During a span of two to three hours, sales were sporadic, like a drip here and there.
Quite a few customers expressed the desire for bouquets, but lacking flower arranging skills, I had to decline bouquet arrangements.
Despite being a flower shop, I felt it wasn’t a good situation and reflected on it.
Silently, I’ve resolved that ‘taking a flower arranging course is the only option.’
As an overall impression, it was a lot of fun.
My husband, who found driving and carrying the load challenging, is leaning toward ‘the next time might be a bit of a high hurdle…’. For me, I definitely want to do it again.
I will persuade my husband when the time is right ^ – ^