Sandra J. Paluzzi
The Bead Peddler®

 When you attend a craft fair, you rent space for the duration of the show.  You staff the booth - displaying and selling your wares.  You do not pay any commission on sales. 

There are also  craft 'malls'  that allow you to rent space on a month to month basis.  You are responsible for stocking the shelves and displaying your wares.  The store is responsible for selling the merchandise.   If the store takes  a commission, it is typically a very small one.

Sometimes craft malls are combined with antique/collectible marts.  Crafters typically rent 'shelf' space.   Shelf space tends to vary a great deal by location, but I've never seen it go as high as 100.00 a month.  For example, shelf space measuring 4 foot long by 5 foot high rents for 64 a month in a resort section of Vermont.

Of course, location is everything in retail.  That holds especially true for craft malls.  You want a lot of foot traffic.  Tourist locations are great.  People will be looking for souvenirs.  It helps if there's an extra attraction to pull people to the mart.  The inclusion of an eating area is always a plus.

Before agreeing to rent space in a mall, you will want to know the age of the mall, the theft rate in the mall, who is responsible for stolen merchandise, and how many people staff the mall. 

You can easily discover if a mall is worth its requested rent.  Ask for a comparable vendor's average monthly sales.  For the sake of this article, we'll say another jewelry vendor in your mall averages 300 a month in sales.  In a previous column, we said that 30% was a good consignment rate.  So 30% of 300 is 90.00 a month.  If you sell around 300 a month in jewelry and pay 90.00 or less a month in rent, you are making out just fine.  On the other hand if you're only bringing in 100.00 a month, you won't want to pay more than 30.00 a month rent.  Of course, there are 'hot' months and slow months.  Your sales should soar in Florida over the winter.  Likewise, October should be a good month in the New England states.  And Christmas is a good time for everyone.  Keep in mind that it is the average sales figure that determines the mall's profitability over the course of the year.   This average sales figure can be calculated by adding together 12 consecutive month's worth of sales and dividing the total by 12.  What if you do the math and see that the rent is costing you 40% of the sales.  Do you feel a 40% consignment fee is fair?  Are you still making a profit?  If profits are slim, are your goods under priced for the market?  If no other option presents itself, you can always try negotiating the rent.  Tell the craft manager that the rent is taking an average of 40% of the total annual sales and you need to get this figure down to 30%.  Many craft managers will work with you if you have concrete evidence to support your claims.

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