Starving Vendors Welcomes You



HAPPY NEW YEAR!! TIME FOR THOSE ARIZONA SHOWS.

The weather has been really mild here in California for the past month as we have had a very small amount of rain here. I have been checking the forecasts for Arizona (Tyson, Quartzsite and Yuma) and it looks pretty good. The first Tyson Wells show starts today and runs through next weekend. I wish I could be there for a couple events. Temps in the 70s during the day. Winds on Sunday will be around 18mph, but nothing in comparison to what I went through on January 21, 2010. How do you like 75mph?

The book is now ready for sale. You can purchase a copy on the new website and get info there. Read description and sample pages. Price is a reasonable $14.95. Please click here for more info.

Recent Show Reviews

Castro Valley Fall Festival (Sep 10-11) See what happens when you move the event to a new venue away from the "Boulevard."

Milpitas Adobo Festival (Sep 3-4). This was a smaller Filipino Festival held at an out of 'street view' sports facility on the fringes of Silicon Valley.

Visit the Stone Soup Music Faire held in Grover Beach, approximately 3 miles from the ocean. A small community music festival.



The Editor Speaks

    October 2011

I hope that you like the changes to this page. Will be putting more work into other parts of the site

.Do you like the shot of Mt. Shasta on the top of the pzge? One of my all-time favorites. I took it at a July 4th weekend there a few year's back. Great place for a show.

Haven't done too many shows this year due to family health problems and a sour economy. Staying away from shows in Manteca and you won't see my butt in a good number of shows I've done in the past. You also will not see me in San Jose for the Holiday Craft Faire this November and you will not see me in Yuba City for Christmas in November. Those shows were excruciating. Antioch actually sent me an application for their holiday event in November. Looks like they are getting desperate. Last year they changed their formal and decided to get rid of vendors that weren't Arts and Crafts and would not allow a good number of us not to sell there. This show was not a good money maker for a lot of vendors and they are not returning. So now they are searching for new vendors and they sent me an application. Sorry Charlie, I am not going there. No way.

Enjoy browsing through the website and hope the reviews, etc

    ARE YOU ON DIALYSIS AND DOING SHOWS?

I would like to hear your stories. My wife has been on dialysis for the past two years and we have had to give up a number of events. We no longer do Tyson Wells (Sell-a-Rama) in January and we have had to give up our Oregon County Fairs in July. Tell me how you make it through your shows and how your dialysis is going. Please email me with your stories. info@starvingvendors.com

THE PHILLY CHEESTEAK REPORT

     BOB'S HOAGY STEAKS

This place is located in Hayward at 29623 Mission Blvd. It's basically a 'hole-in-the-wall' situated in the middle corner of a tiny mall which has perhaps 7-8 other businesses near the intersection of Industrial and Mission (across from the old and defunct Holiday Bowl).

I got a Mushroom Cheesesteak with everything (onions & peppers) on it. There was plenty of meat and the price was okay. This came with fries. I've had much better over the years. They cooked every thing together and the meat was kind of dry. Give it about a 4.5 rating. Run by Asians and they are NOT noted for making great cheesesteaks. Sorry to say, but you need to go to White America to find truly great Philly Cheesesteaks.

    STICK AROUND FOR MORE PHILLY CHEESESTEAK REVIEWS.

        CLICK TO READ ABOUT OTHER BAY AREA PLACES TO ENJOY CHEESESTEAKS.

OPINION

   PANTS ON THE GROUND

I completely agree with the sign. People with their pants dragging down by their knees look stupid as hell. The only thing good about this 'style' is that it's hard for them to rob you and run away.   Other than that, it's one of the grossest fads I have ever seen. I don't think the chicks dig this and if they did, then they are people I wouldn't want to be caught dead with. Please people. Look more fashionable. Maybe I'll print this sign out and hang it in the front of my booth. That would be hilarious.

There are rules in prison about this, because it is used to advertise that the person is availible for homosexual acts in exchange for payment. If these kid’s just knew what it means to wear there clothes in this manner.

FESTIVALS AND MORE


    April 2011 Manteca Crossroads Street Faire

THERE WAS A FUNNEL CAKE booth across from us. I find it kind of interesting that they also had two ATM Machines set up on the street, one of which was located about 15 feet in front of us. In all my years of doing these shows, never did I ever see anybody hauling around any ATM machines like this. They rolled them out of a trailer which they used to transport their equipment. To tell you the truth, I didn't really see very many people using it. They had a bunch of signs posted on the sides of the two machines. They were charging $3.00 per transaction. I saw 5-10 people use it over the two days; I don't know. I stood out there and leaned up against one of them occasionally. I found it very funny that there was wording on there that said 'monitored by the FBI.' Yah, right. The FBI is going to be monitoring their machine. Who the heck is going to fall for that. I got a good laugh at that one. There was also something on there that said it was bolted to the ground. No. No way.

   For more information, check review or email commets@starvingvendors.com



    '

     Heading home from Taft's Oilderado Days in 2010

As we approached Santa Nella, it began to sprinkle. My windows on the van were pretty dirty and when I turned on the wipers they looked pretty much like pea soup. Just as that thought entered my mind, we drove past Anderson's Pea Soup. Isn’t that amazing? It was weird and eerie. My windows were really smudged from the sand that had settled on the van during the day and the wipers just smeared the stuff all over the windows.

     For more information check review or email comments@starvingvendors.com ''




    2011 Castro Valley Fall Festival

Due to the construction on Castro Valley Boulevard, this year's Fall Festival was moved to another location near the library. It was quite spread out and a long walk to the arts and crafts booths. The weather was great, except for some morning clouds. I certainly hope that they move the event back to 'the Boulevard' next year. The Chamber of Commerce might call it a success, but I would call it a screw job for the vendors. Might be time for us to part ways with this festival next year if they put it in the same place. You can read about it here.

    For more information, check review or email comments@starvingvendors.com




     2010 UKIAH PUMPKINFEST


2010 UKIAH PUMPKINFEST

October 18. Read about the incredible magno-man, vivacious, titillating belly dancers. See the 'world's smallest Bratwurst sandwich. Hear how the Chamber of Clobbers, I mean Commerce handles a disabled lady wishing to use their toilet facilities. It's all there. How did the vendors make out? Hear what one of the best motel deals in town is. What was the weather like? You can read it all in the review. Please click here.

I will not be doing the event this year. They get a good turnout for the parade, but you don't have a large amount of buyers. Great weather this weekend for it.



Getting squeezed out at the Milpitas Adobo Festival

As soon as we could, we set up the canopy and the grids approximately 3 feet from the adjacent canopy.

Within a few minutes, the lady comes over and tells us that we have to move our canopy right up next to the neighbor's booth. I really couldn't believe it. Here we are in the middle of a football field with plenty of room and she is giving us the squeeze play. What is wrong with you, woman? Damm. I paid $350 for this space and don't tell me that I won't be able to sell from the sides. Welcome to my nightmare. I couldn't help but notice that we had a lot of dirt in our area and it looked like our buckets, etc., were going to come out of here with messy bottoms. So, you know that we are located around midfield, between the 45's, the busiest part of any football field where the grass is all chewed up

OREGON COUNTY FAIRS

How about these? Purely fiction, but can you imagine seeing something like this
at a County Fair someplace?

SPECIAL GUEST. Charlie Glitzenmeyer of Redmond will appear at the Fair on Saturday afternoon and will be promoting his new book 'How I Made a Million Dollars' selling pooper scoopers. Inventor of the Glitzenmeyer Propane Powered Super Duper Pooper Scooper which sells at local hardware stores for $238.05. Charlie will also appear at the monthly Green Hat Lady's luncheon on Wednesday at Mildred Zognovicki's home.

Ralph Rock of Madras will teach you how to heat your home using cow manure. He wants to let you know that he is feeling much better after the explosion last year which put him in the hospital for three weeks. His hair has almost grown completely back, but he doesn't have his beard anymore. He thanks everybody for all the cards and flowers that the people out there sent to him.

DISASTERS and BAD WEATHER

     Tough Times in Tyson Wells 2010

I still have not-so-fond memories of Tyson Wells (2010) for the Sell-a-Rama and A&C Show there.   That year was extremely rough and you can see what happened. Check out my Disaster pictures from that January. I understand that the weather this year was much milder. However, many vendors were still plagued by the strong winds and slow sales.

Just want to remind you that vendors located in the back four rows are prone to high winds and other weather elements that come knocking. Vendors in the middle rows are shielded by the RVs and other booths. The back 4 rows were just about wiped out. Row Z was devoured! Rows X and Y were crushed and blown away. Many people lost a lot of merchandise. I had quite a bit damaged. I guess some hats made it out to the highway AND beyond. There were people there who never found their canopies which were blown away.

To my understanding, they had three pretty bad storms; September, December and January 21st which was part of the tornado that struck around 5:00pm

This is what my canopies looked like just after they were blown over from the storm of January 21 which came by and knocked down over 60 canopies with winds exceeding 70 mph in Tyson Wells, AZ. Just minutes before, I was standing outside the canopies trying to affix one of the side covers that had blown off. Yes, we did manage to repair both canopies and begin selling again within a couple days. Vendors never give up but Don't come looking for me here in 2011. Amen.

     For more information click here

     South Lake Tahoe and Miller's 'Y' Show - May 23-26, 2008

Had difficulties sleeping that night as we listened to the rain splashing to the ground and hearing the passing cars sloshing through the water. I wondered what it was going to look like in the morning. We did manage to get some sleep...not very good though and finally awoke around 5:30. I layed in bed for a little while and I was scared to look outside. Lucy walked over and peeked through the curtains and said that there was snow on the ground. Oh gosh....was this my worst nightmare. Were we going to have to trample through 2 feet of snow. Woe this was May and they had snow already. Later on I would be told by many people that you have a chance of snow any day of the year. That's just great. We had been doing shows over the Memorial Holiday in Oakhurst, etc., and we were used to temps approaching 100 degrees. Not this time, for sure.

I walked over to the window and saw that there was (only) about 4-5 inches of snow on the ground and our van was covered with it, of course. We got dressed and then drove over to the event.

The parking lot was a bit wet, but thankfully there was no snow. We pulled apart the covers and stepped inside the canopy and began putting up our merchandise. IT WAS COLD. It was around 7:00 now and there was no sign of the sun coming out. A bit breezy and cold. I felt sickly and didn't have too much energy and the same went for Lucy. She had surgery on her eye the week before and it was now beginning to puff up and she began experiencing some discomfort and pain.



   2006 Chandler Ostrich Festival

The festival started on Friday and it was mostly a carnival-type crowd. Not very many people during the day but substantially more as the day wore on. Not a lot of crowd flow down in the gulley where the vendor's were located. It began raining later in the evening and we retreated back to our motor home, hoping that the rains would decrease. We stayed in the motor home throughout the night and heard the rain hitting roof. Quite difficult sleeping especially when you are worried that rainwaters might be accumulating on the top of the canopy. The rain slowed down around 8:00 and I walked over and checked out the canopy, pushing the water off the top. I returned to the motor home and that is where we spent the rest of the day.

I guess that the rains stopped between 4-6 am on Sunday morning. I stepped out of the motor home with plastic bags over my shoes and made my way over to the area where the booths were located. The place had turned into Lake Chandler.    Please click here to view gallery of 2006 images (flood).




Tales of Woe

Double Nightmare with

COSTCO CANOPIES



On Saturday, October 10, 2009, I was selling at an event in Pacifica, CA using this same, exact canopy. It was around 1:30pm and I was sitting toward the back of the canopy. I looked to the right and saw the canopy begin to lean toward my left. I quickly stood up and reached over with my right arm and pushed up against the leg. Too late. "Bye bye Balboni." Almost "Bye-bye Dave." I couldn't stop it and I then 'moon-walked' quickly away as it narrowly avoided crashing into me. I couldn't believe what just happened. Fortunately, there was nobody around in or next to the canopy. Here are more pictures o the canopy.



SCENIC LOCATIONS

     Common's Beach in Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is another beautiful place to have a show. Back in 2001, we did one of Steve Maitland's events at Commons Beach. This happened to be a car show and there were around 15 vendors there. We only were able to do this show for two years because they had some construction at the beach and supposedly they put up condos. For many year's another promoter (Staniford) had shows at 'The Y' up in Tahoe, but I heard that the owners sold the property and their is construction going on. They moved the shows scheduled there to the Middle School. As for Steve Maitland, he has a number of shows in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area throughout the year. One of them is Hot August Nights at the Atlantis Casino in August. To find out more about his shows, just google his name. When he did his shows years ago, they had a BBQ at the conclusion of the event. One year we had some steaks; another year it was chicken. Not too many promoters do that.

BOGUS BOB'S SHOW GUIDE



   ZERO DOLLAR FESTIVALS AND EVENTS PRESENTS



14th Annual

Festival on the Bay

Saturday and Sunday
    May 3 and 4, 2012

"No Frills, no thrills,

no bills"   our motto.

Only $300 per 10x10 space.

We keep our costs down. No advertising, no security, no nothing.

Just send me your check for $300 plus $50 for electricity (if needed); $125 for insurance, $50 for city permit, $25 for police permit, $30 processing fee.
When you arrive at the festival go ahead and set up where ever you choose.   Last year's attendance was 130,000 and we expect more this time!!!! Great location!!!   Best selling for vendors last year were yellow rubber ducks, toy motorboats and Galoshes.

'

THE CENTRAL COAST

     Grover Beach

2011 STONE SOUP MUSIC FAIRE. Grover Beach, CA.

I WONDERED WHAT KIND of foot traffic we would get since we were located all the way at the end of the street. However, we did get a good number because a lot of people entered the show from that side. Sales were slow in coming and sales were slow in going. People just not buying much from me or anybody else. Maybe they were just looking for the unusual stuff.   Maybe they were looking for socks. There were a number of vendors that did pretty good. I estimated approximately 40 vendors with a nice array of products. I had all sides open on my booth and that didn't even help my sales.

READ MORE IN MY REVIEW OF THE STONE SOUP MUSIC FAIRE 2011

Stone Soup Music Faire 2009

The promoter was saying that they had 25 new vendors this year (2009) and believe even more than that. I spoke to 8 vendors and only one had said they were there last year. While the lady next to me was setting up yesterday, I asked her if she was here last year. She said 'no.' I said 'uh, oh.' I asked the Chinese couple in back of us and the man said "no." I looked at him and said "uh oh." We both laughed. Not a good sign. I asked one of my other friend's if he was here last year and he told me he wasn't. I told him 'Oh shit.

IRKED OFF

     Who Is Dave Clements and why is he irked off?

HOW OFTEN DOES THIS GUY IRK OFF?

A very special welcome goes out to the people of Manteca who have read Mr. Wyatt's article in the Manteca Bulletin about what I have written about the shows there. Seems that an individual was 'irked' by what I wrote. Here's what I said:

“They had no money. They all traded in their clunkers and bought new wheels and now they got their cars repossessed. Some of them just walked around and got fatter while others socialized or played with vendor’s items. What else are they going to do? No money here or anyplace else in the valley. Economy is completely shot along 99 from Marysville to the Grapevine. Economically disadvantaged area and people just go through the motions. Tire-kickers, teenagers pushing strollers, overweight welfare moochers.... they’re all there.”

A lot of you people know me and I comment on a lot of issues and I am always trying to add some humor. You can search through my reviews of 3 years of the Street Fairs in Manteca. You know that I tell it like it is.   I have reprinted the article on this website for you to read and if you want to comment then you can email me at comments@starvingvendors.com. Mr. Wyatt has made a number of twisted statements and I am providing my response/correction to what he says in his article. Click here to read   I stand by what I say.

THOSE CRAZY TIMES

     People are Funny - Atwater Fall Festival

Periodically I will add one of those special encounters that we have at a show. Eventually I will have a section in this website devoted to these bewildering moments.

Fifteen year old boy comes over to the booth. Let's call this intellectual wizard 'Plato.' "This is amazing," Plato said causing me to blink my eyes rapidly several times. "I have never seen anything like this before." I looked at him with my two out-stretched arms. "You mean something like this Craft Show" I asked Plato as I brought my hands together. "Yah." "When was the last time your parents let you go outside?"

To this Plato responded, "I'm from Bakersfield." "Oh, now I see," were my final words as he proceeded to prance away quickly. Five minutes later here comes Plato again. I had one of my wooden swords inside a bucket and he pulls out his cell phone and took a picture of it. Yah. Bakersfield, all right. Plato was so excited as he danced from booth-to-booth, vendor-to-vendor soaking in the many wonders that each one had to offer. Maybe "Playdough" is a more appropriate name for him.



    Pretty Quiet Here at The Motel in Ukiah

Went around last night and tied up and gagged all the horses, cows, kids and the loudmouths. Put 'No Smoking' signs outside saying 'No Loitering' and 'No Trespassing,' Put speed bumps out in the hallway and glued all the doors shut. Cut off the TV service to all the rooms except for mine and turned off all the water. Didn't have to put roadblocks out in the street because the passing cars weren't too noisy. Palisade Hotel. It may have been Christmas in November but it was hell in Yuba City.

     Manopause in Madras

ANOTHER GUY CAME INTO THE BOOTH and grabbed hold of one of our silk fans. "How much is this?" he asked. "Three dollars," I replied. He then said "My wife is going through menopause and she needs this." I looked up at him. "I can sell you two for five dollars."   He then pulled out a five dollar bill and bought two fans. Looks like his wife wasn't the only one with hot flashes......... Jefferson County Fair (2009)



ALERT

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TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS SCAM PLEASE CLICK HERE

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