Saturday, December 5, 2009

Danielle's Diary: Manly Fair Trade Christmas Market, 29 November 2009

Today I took the family to Manly for the Fair Trade Christmas Market. We got there at just past 7am to give us plenty of time to set up a deliciously gorgeous Nui stall. I used lots of the beautiful Nui postcards on the display– they looked great on a black backdrop. We had a great position under the trees out the front of the council chambers, and near the music – there was a cool breeze coming from the sea keeping the temperature comfortably ambient – so the chocolate didn’t melt YAY!!
It was a nice mellow family kinda day – not too intense – I had time to chat with people and not feel overwhelmed with having too many people to deal with at once. I shared the responsibilities of looking after the stall and our 1 yr old son Quidam, with my partner Jean Pascal, although once things were set up, I did most of the stall and he did most of Quidam – he had him asleep in the Ergo on him for hours!! Well done Papa. Quidam was a star as well he thoroughly enjoyed the music and all the admiring people.
The cacao products stole the show. Our top selling product for the day was the chocolate bar – we sold 13 – with no sample – I figured everyone knows what chocolate tastes like and it’s the story that sells – minimal refining, practically handmade right here in Terrey Hills!!! The choc coconut spread was not far behind with 11 sales. We sold out of cocoa powder – we only had 2 and I think we could’ve sold more – powder is the cacao product people are most familiar with over butter or nibs. Everyone was really curious to try the raw beans – a taste of REAL chocolate – and the product stories just flow from there.
I was surprised at the resistance of many people to give their email address and sign up for the Nui Generation – there was a clear sense that people are getting flooded in their email accounts with stuff they don’t want - hence the importance to find out people’s interests and only mail for those specifically.
We only took a limited range of the skin care products – small body butters, body bars, hand & body washes, foot & body scrubs. We tried Andreas’ suggestion of offering to take the money and post any product we didn’t have on Monday.– a great solution to lugging stacks of stock around to the markets – and people were into it – I love the building of trust :o)
We got 21 new members for the Nui Generation – their main interests being fair trade, climate change, beauty, health, food & CHOCOLATE!!! Despite it being a fair trade market there were still quite a few people who were unaware of this and not really interested in finding out more information though many others were really receptive and interested in the story.
Friends and family dropped by to visit which made the day even more enjoyable.
Over all I thought we had a successful day – our sales total was around $580. We are finally at a space where we can have a smooth running relatively easy operation – YAY TEAM!! GO NUI!!!