Street Fair Business Ideas?

Last weekend, my Fiancee and I took a short trip down to San Diego.  On Sunday we went to the Carlsbad Street Fair.  It sounded like a cool way to spend a Sunday.  We could check out the arts and crafts that people were selling.  Take in the sights and smells of Kettle Corn, Polish sausages and frozen lemonade.  We had no idea how large the Street Fair would be.  According to the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, it is the largest single day street fair in the state of California.

We were surprised by the wares that people were hawking.  There was relatively little arts and crafts.  Rather, most of the goods appeared to be professionally manufactured.  Many appeared to be small business owners.  There were a few community or school related organizations doing fundraisers from raffle to bake sales to a variety of packaged products.  Mostly, it appeared that it was just some local folks spending a Sunday outdoors, making a few extra bucks.

Which, of course, got me thinking...  How can I get in on this?

Here's how I see the options:

• Artsy-Craftsy.  I could become really good at crocheting pot holders.  Don't see this one happening.
• Packaged food.  I could start jarring some custom jams and spreads, or making some sort of candied fruits or nuts.  This one is possible, but there would definitely be a learning curve to get to the point of a marketable product.
• Wholesaling.  No doubt the challenge is finding the right product with the right pricing and marketability.  However, this could be the one.  I would want to work with a product that was fairly unique (I know, unique means one of a kind, so something is either unique or not, never "fairly unique"), and something that could also be sold on-line.
• Franchising.  I noticed that a couple of the booths were franchised products.  I would be wary of the franchise fees and any ongoing costs.  This could work.

I think I would have to be fairly passionate about the product.  I don't see myself getting up at 5:00am on a Sunday to set up my booth at the fair, sit there until 5:00pm, and spend the next couple of hours breaking everything down, if I didn't love what I was selling.

There's the story.  Here are the questions:

Have you ever sold any goods through a street fair or similar venue?  If so, what type of product, and did you find it to be enjoyable/profitable?  What products do you think would be ideal for that type of outlet?

Thanks!

Comments

[frankyj]

I've never sold anything, but one time I took my saxophone out into the street and played some jazz for an hour. It came out to be about $12/hr from the tips I received. Not too bad for a college student.

[Robert Cote]

Sell booth structures and canopies and signage and booth supplies to the other vendors.

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[surety bonds]

I have done this once but it is more like a garage sale to me. The experience is quite fulfilling and I really don't know why I felt so happy after selling my products.

[plumbing]

I guess it would be good to sell food since people are tired walking around the street fair and a little refreshment will do. I haven't try to sell in a street fair anyway.

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In a street fair, I would have some of the products you will use in your shop and explain the differences. Let people smell all the good smells of colognes, blueberry facials and other shampoos.

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