Outdoor Marketplace in Chandler

Today we participated in Bashas' Outdoor Marketplace and had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera so cannot provide you with pictures of this event. We were at the Bashas' in Chandler, Arizona from 10-4. There were approximately 50 vendors in attendance, including some local eateries.

We got to Bashas' relatively early, around 7:15 am in anticipation of setup. By 7:45 all of the early vendors had located spaces and began the fun setup process. For those of you who have not had the joy of setting up a booth, this is something that can either be quite entertaining, or extremely frustrating. Since we have done this a time or two in the past, we quickly located a spot, and began setting up the booth. Within about a half an hour the majority of our booth was ready for business.

The really fun part about setting up so quickly is that it allows us the opportunity to either visit with other vendors, or to watch the late arrivals try to find a spot and then wrestle with their set up. Being a vendor at a local event is great if you enjoy people and all the fun that goes with people setting up in a constrained area. By 9:30 almost all the vendors were placed and predominantly finished with their setup. As we were setting up, customers wandering into this shopping area had the ability to wander around and watch what was going on.

There was a reasonable amount of people wandering around our Outdoor Marketplace most of the day. We were pleased with the numbers, especially since Spring Break started and as a general rule, people leave town on Spring Break. The only real excitement we had was around 11 am when a very strong stray wind (and I mean WIND) blew through the area and took out about 5 vendor booths. This wind felt like it may have been a dust devil without the dust. It came up very fast, very strong, tossed several tents, umbrellas and canopies in the air, cleared several vendor tables of their contents and knocked over a beautiful display of clay masks.

Luckily only a few vendors sustained damage to their products, the worst being the artist who lost the majority of his clay masks. What makes these events really worth attending is seeing all vendors band together in a crisis and help each other out. Once the wind dissipated, all the vendors who were not affected, came to the aid of the vendors who sustained some damage. It is a wonderful sight to see people helping each other with no ulterior motive involved.

It was also wonderful to see some familiar faces with their products and services at this event. The vendors we were next to included Celebrating Home, obviously Bashas' was there, as was Lights Out Exterminating, Toms Bar B Que, Paw Print Artists, and Life Care Animal Hospital. There was also a bouncy building for kids to jump around in and a climbing wall.

In a nutshell, the day was perfect for an Outdoor Marketplace and there were plenty of vendors and activities to suit all who were interested. Hopefully we will see you at next week's Outdoor Marketplace in Gold Canyon. If you would like a schedule of where we will be, please check our our website and click on the link, Schedule of Events.

Until tomorrow...