NOTICE:  Nov 30.  I am sending in my money for Nada's show on December 12 and am wholly supporting her in her endeavors.  I am hoping that other's will follow suit in hopes that we can get a little crowd in there.   Perhaps for next year, she can get a show in a mall with a more reliable anchor where people will be drawn in and proceed to browse at our merchandise.  Best of luck for the remainder of the year and a Merry Christmas to you.

Oct 31, 2009

Meridian Square Fair/Bazaar

4698 Meridian Ave., San Jose, CA, 95118

The Bazaar will be held at the Meridian Square, 4698 Meridian Avenue, corner of Meridian Avenue and Branham Lane “PETCO Center”, San Jose.

 

NOTE:  You may now make comments about the event and if they are relatively important I will post them in this review.

 

Saturday, October 31

 

I left Hayward around 6:30 and headed down 880/17 to and through San Jose, exiting onto Highway 85 toward Gilroy.  As I approached the Camden Avenue exit, it became quite foggy with the break of day arriving.  Exiting at Camden Avenue, I missed the Branham Lane turnoff, which should have been simple.  However, I hadn't paid attention to the Google instructions and kept going a mile or so down until I reached a center with a Home Depot and turned around and headed back.  I glanced at my map and saw that the Branham Lane exit was close to Highway 85 and I should have caught it, but I missed it, partially due to the fog and OLD AGE.

 

THE REVIEW.  San Jose is an enormous community of nearly one million and is quite spread out.  This event was held at the Meridian Square Center, one of many strip malls scattered about the city.  The event basically drew people from a small area and mostly of a very local variety.  The weather did not go as forecasted and did not come through for us during the AM and probably kept people away until the PM, when crowds did pick up.  This is a very small event with around 30 vendors who paid a reasonable rate for the spaces.  An older type mall with a  PETCO considered to be the main anchor tenant.  There really isn't a hard-core retailer there to draw patrons to this area and must rely upon advertising, which is definitely something that this promoter did.

This show was not a draw for the Halloween crowd as people went elsewhere and I can imagine that it's tough to put on an A&C show on this particular weekend without having a large array of seasonal activities.  The promoter is one of the nicest and most honest one's around and I really hope that she can build on this show.  Nobody made great sums of money here, but I think that there were too many elements working against the success of the show.  Traffic here is rather small and no reason for people living in other locations in the city to come here. Maybe as time goes on, events in this location will work out fine for vendors of the local variety who do not have high expenses (motel, travel, etc.).  You don't have to pay for insurance, city fees, jury fees, etc.  Just straight up booth fee..no B.S.  It will take a bit of work and a lot of patience.

 

I arrived at the Center around 7:15 as it was becoming light out, but still foggy and quite overcast.  I saw an area with a number of canopies set up and found my space quickly and began setting up.

 

THE WEATHER remained cool and a bit breezy throughout the cloudy morning.  Weather forecasts said 70 degrees and Sunny.  Uh uh uh.  Maybe that's what kept people away during the morning.

 

HALLOWEEN CANDY was given out by a number of vendors, but there weren't very many youngsters hopping around. Maybe there's a big ol' haunted house someplace and that's where they ended up.  Perhaps they were at school functions or someplace else.  I have no idea what they do during a Saturday morning but whatever they were doing, it just wasn't being done here. Sleeping is not a bad idea with this kind of weather.

 

THIS IS AN OLDER, small strip mall with PETCO being considered as the anchor and I would not consider this as being any kind of big draw. There are a number of other smaller businesses there which include three 'restaurants.'  Mountain Mike's Pizza, Quiznopes and an Italian Food place.  For lunch, I walked over to Quiz's and ordered one of their Cheesesteak Sandwiches.  I decided to go there because they passed out coupons for a free drink and chips when you buy a sandwich.  Sound okay to you?  The sandwich was pricey....$7.95 and this was only the second time I had ever gotten a sandwich from the chain.  It was quite large and somewhat okay.  Not great and I would rate it around 4.92 on a 10-point scale.  Nothing spectacular. Just their version of a Cheesesteak Sandwich.

 

I'm not too sure that a Halloween Craft Show goes over very good around here.  I just don't really see a lot of people heading over there on this particular day of the year.  I don't think it's a good day for an event like this and hopefully future events here will be better.  I'd like to see how this show does on a nice sunny, 75-degree day.  This fair is located along a main thoroughfare within the city, Meridian Street and has a good amount of vehicular traffic.  The main drawback is that this is an older mall with a PETCO where people can bring their dogs on down and shop around.  BYOD.  There's no real reason for large amounts of people to shop here. Perhaps we needed more events for the kid's here such as a parade or trick-or-treating in the stores.  Maybe a good ol' witch burning might spark some attention. Parent's and kids go elsewhere.  Maybe a pumpkin patch is needed or something similar to draw people in.  Attendance was quite low today.

 

There was a Martial Arts Demonstration by students who attend classes in the mall.  At approximately 3:00pm, they brought their mats over and spread them across the pavement and gave a very entertaining performance.  I guess there were around 15 students participating.  Well done, people.

 

NOTE:  The Pallen School of Martial Arts in Castro Valley should take notes from you on how to act at a festival.  They are totally lacking.

  

                  

 

 

 

 

Here's a number of shots of vendor's displays.  The first one is mine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the surprise of a number of vendors, the sprinklers (see below) went off automatically around noontime, completely catching all of us by surprise.  There were a couple areas with plants (as shown below) where the sprinklers were located.  Nada saved the day by placing 'cones' on top of the sprinklers.  However, some of the vendor's merchandise was damaged and puddles accumulated on the asphalt.  This is just one of those unexpected things that can pop up during an event.

 

This brings back memories of a show we did at Casa de Fruta.  Perhaps 7-8 years ago, we were in our motor home late at night almost asleep when we heard noises outside.  It sounded like somebody riding something along the gravel road next to our motor home.  I really didn't pay attention to it, but after 15 minutes or so, I glanced outside and saw that the sprinkler's went off automatically and were getting a number of vendor's canopies wet.  Mike (the promoter) had to race up and down, grabbing flower pots and covering up the sprinkler heads.  Never a dull moment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last, but not last is our promoter, Nada standing in front of Mark's booth, which was located next to mine.  I had another pic of Nada, but the batteries in my camera were low and it didn't come out.

 

Do you wish to comment?  Your opinions, questions and comments are appreciated.

 

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THE LIGHTER SIDE
a not-to-seriouis way to look at this weekend's event