What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Monday, September 12, 2016

My Booth: Good-Bye

The store where I have my booth is turning five in November.  I was one of the original vendors when the store opened.  I remember the first month my check was well over $600 and I was very excited about that.  I fluffed it and took in new merchandise each week.  Since I deal mostly in smalls, I had a permanent set up of nice old shelves that I filled with all sorts of vintage goodies.  So, the set up was always the same, but the junk in it was always different.  I like old kitchen things and toys and cute adorable crap to sit on windowsills. And Christmas was my big time at the booth - lots and lots of vintage.  I sold a ton of blowmolds in there in the first several years.  



About a year ago, (or maybe more who knows time flies and all that stuff) they built a new highway around the tiny town where I have my booth.  I held on to my convictions that it wouldn't hurt business downtown.  But it has.  There is a main street with nothing but flea markets and antique stores.  Most people come to town to shop at Daisies and Olives then they work their way down the street going in and out of each shop, crossing at the light and then work their way back up the other side of the street.  My store is the very last store on that side of the street.  So, if people are spending money along the way, they are getting poor before they come to my store.  And, then, insult to injury - if you come in the store and take the aisles up and down - my booth is the next to the last booth on the ENTIRE STREET.  Needless to say, sales have gone down month by month.  Here's a blog post with pictures of the street.  It's a fun town with lots of good junk.


Now, I will admit that I haven't always paid enough attention to it especially now that I am a Junk Ranch Vendor.  I am always shopping with the JR in mind, pricing for the JR, making things for the JR and so on and so forth.  After the JR, I take the remaining merchandise to the booth to fill it up. Then, I set my sights on the next JR again.  




My booth rent is $52 a month and the JR is $100 twice a year.  I can sell twenty times at the JR compared to one month at the booth.  And, the money is ALL MINE.  No commission.  So, of course that is where my thoughts are always turned.  Find stuff for the Junk Ranch. Price stuff for the Junk Ranch.  Make things for the Junk Ranch.  But, then the Junk Ranch is over and I still have a ton of inventory, so it needs to go somewhere.  I tried putting all my handmade things in my booth, but they just do not sell. Lara has been nice enough to let me try some of my things in her booth at Daisies and Olives, and they seem to be selling there.  So, the goal is to get a booth over there now.  Oddly enough, I had a booth there years ago.  I remember The Bean was in his infant seat sitting on the floor when I worked the booth - so that was an eternity ago.  The store has grown in both size and popularity since then and it is one of the premiere flea markets in the area.  I think my things are a good fit and with the holidays coming - I really want to be established in there so I can make heaps of cash.  Ha.  

So, tomorrow I will close my little booth.  I'm sad that I am leaving,  Sad that it's just not the right place for me anymore.  But, you gotta do, what you gotta do.  So, I gotta do it!  


Good bye Booth #33.   

I'll miss you!

9 comments:

  1. I know it's a hard decision, but you are right, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. I hope you get a booth in the other Antique Mall soon. Still you do so well at Junk Ranch that is really your focus for now! Hugs!

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  2. All good things come to an end. I get it about a show being so alluring though. That is one of the reasons I do shows and no booths...no commission and no rent. (#33 is one of my lucky numbers though) March on junking...

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  3. End of an era, Dawn of a new Junk Empire!!!! In my mind there was dramatic, vaguely Star Wars like music. I get attached so I get the sad. Hope you get in D and O soon. I'm the same with shows, then the after show. It's all gotta go somewhere, hubby gets squirrelly otherwise.

    Chanelle

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  4. Best of luck in your new venture. Wishing you much success!

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  5. I want to look in every nook and cranny of your booth! No matter where it is! I'm super sentimental and I can imagine the sadness that comes with leaving something that you were a part of from the beginning (I've been in my antique mall since they opened too - coming up on just three years). But it's just geography - the spirit of your new booth will be the same - just in a more attractive location AT THIS TIME. It may change down the road and you'll do what any good business woman will do - research, re-evaluate and do what's right for YOU. Your heart will be heavy but you have a ton of good junkin' memories. A new journey awaits and we're coming along for the ride!

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  6. Best of luck on your new junkin' adventure. Change is hard, but it will be SO worth it. Glad we can come along for the ride.

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  7. Big decision, but it's probably time. Darn expressways!

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  8. These kinds of decisions are hard. I know. been there. Done that. But in the end, you have to do what's right for you. Onward and upward to bigger and better things!

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  9. Sorry to hear you had to make a hard decision. But crossing my fingers that you get a booth soon at Daisies and Olives. Good luck at Junk Ranch. I wish I could be there! Your set up is always amazing.

    xo Dianne

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