Hi CCPOM Members!
Here on the Board, we are always trying to think about ways to not only benefit our members, but to expand the reach of our club and include more families of multiples. As we know, the ETC Sale is the biggest event that our club sponsors, one that benefits our members while also benefitting the community where it is held. For the past few fall sales, we have held the sale at Martinez Junior High School, a location that has met our basic needs. As our club continues to grow, our needs also grow and change. What we'd like to explore is the idea of moving the fall sale only out to the Antioch fairgrounds with the idea that the sale would be held on a Saturday and Sunday instead of a Friday and Saturday.
This is a RADICAL change, so let's look at the pros and cons:
* Being in Antioch for the fall sale would more closely involve members who live farther east -- those folks in Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, and Discovery Bay.
* The fairgrounds would provide us more space for the fall sale. While the junior high is sufficient in space, we are pretty cramped -- there isn't much wiggle room. The fairgrounds would give us room to expand the fall sale in terms of items we are able to sell without having to give members a limit.
* With an entirely new location, Antioch would open the sale up to an entirely new group of buyers, potentially very motivated buyers.
* The spring sale at St. Francis works well because people know us there, but our fall sale has historically moved around and we aren't able to establish a regular date year after year. We could potentially accomplish this with a move to the fairgrounds.
* Traffic. Let's be honest: driving Highway 4 on a Friday night out to Antioch would not make for happy sellers or happy buyers. In order for the sale to work for members, we would move the timeline to Saturday/Sunday instead if Friday/Saturday. So instead of members shopping on Friday night, members would shop on Saturday night; instead of the public sale on Saturday morning, the public sale would take place Sunday morning.
There are many pros and cons to the idea of moving the sale. Our hope is that you'll use the blog to discuss your thoughts, your concerns, and your suggestions.
Because a potential move affects our membership, moving the fall sale requires a vote. Our June General Meeting on Thursday, June 17th, will be dedicated entirely to the discussion of and voting on this item. More details are forthcoming about the location of the June meeting.
Please post your thoughts here -- we can start a dialogue on the blog that will continue at the June meeting. This is also the place to post your questions; Tracy and I will answer them here instead of via email.
Let's see if Antioch is a good fit for the club.
Cheers,
Stacey, Tracy, and your Board
I like the idea of utlizing the Antioch fairground as the hall is big and would allow for more space than the Martinez location. In addition I like eliminating the Friday night set up so that I don't have to stay up late on a work night to pack my car so that I can get to the hall after work to unload my items. (I could utlizie my husband on a Saturday with a truck load as well).
ReplyDeleteThe only question I have is...Can we do the sale in one day so that we are not killing both days of the weekend? I know it would make for a long day, but if we could accomplish everything we do on a Friday night/Saturday morning sale in one shot...Saturday...tha twould be awesome!!
I too like the idea of a bigger location, however, I don't like losing the entire weekend. I like Fran's idea of doing it all in one day. I think I have heard of another club doing the member sale first then opening it up to the public at 9am or something. Also, do we have any idea of the traffic on a Sunday? I'm concerned about Sunday. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe idea of having the sale in one day was brought up at the board meeting. The major drawback is that it would make for a VERY long day.
ReplyDeleteA generic schedule would look something like this. Keep in mind this is just off the top of my head, but I am using the current time schedule for this breakdown. I have also added a little time to the setup & Takedown, as there will be drive time from Concord to Antioch and vise versa.
Setup - 7am-10am
sellers putting items out - 10-11:30
Qualtiy Check/Manager buy - 11:30-12:00
Seller buy time - 12:00-12:30
Guest buy time - 12:30-1:00
Open to public - 1:00-6:00
seller pull time - 6:00-6:30
Bag sale - 6:30-7:00
Take down/Cleanup - 7:00-10:00
That puts the people that volunteer for the takedown portion of the sale getting home well after 10PM. I feel that is a lot to ask for the membership. I also don't think there will be a lot of people volunteering for the later shifts, especially if they have smaller children that go to be early.
I also like to the idea of a larger more accessible location. The weekend is also a better time for me (work full time) as with the current schedule I have to take a considerable chunk of time off work to set up, etc. Looking at the one day schedule - it's brutal, but interesting. If you had two really strong "leads" for the sale, I think it could be a viable option.
ReplyDeleteAre there no other locations along 680 that could be considered? If Antioch is the only option, I would say try it for one sale, but don't lock it in for the Spring Sale.
ReplyDeleteI am not tied to the Martinez location in any way but Antioch seems SO far out. Are these the only locations under consideration? With the other multiples club sales being in Pleasanton and Alameda it seems there is a huge geographical gap if ours is in Antioch. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteIf it's in Antioch we probably won't go. Too far. Too much traffic. I'd rather have a little cramped.
ReplyDeleteAlso, we might lose the base of shoppers here who already come to the sale. We would have to do a new HUGE round of publicity out there, even then it might take a few sales to bring it back to the traffic level you've had here, locally.
I don't know how many of our established local shoppers would make the drive.
@Amy: We've exhausted many of the local possibilities, but if you know of anywhere else, then please let us know! We are not talking about moving the spring sale at all: that will stay at St. Francis regardless of what happens for the fall sale.
ReplyDelete@Karis: You're right, there is a huge gap. But location and cost for the fall sale, as well as the possibility of it being a "regular" place year after year, we'd like to find somewhere bigger and more accessible, if possible.
@Marie: Yes, there is this possibility that some folks will skip the fall sale if it is in Antioch. That's why we're opening it up to the club for discussion. The fall sale might be bigger for people who have to come from the east; spring might be bigger for folks closer to St. Francis.
Yes, the advertising would change significantly. We might lose local shoppers, although a handful of non-member shoppers do come from Pittsburg/Antioch, so we'd gain some too. If it works, it will be a learning experience on all accounts!
My first message got eaten by the internet gods somehow. Anyway...
ReplyDeleteBeing someone who lives in West Contra Costa County, Martinez is not bad for distance (but is 25-30 minutes away even still), Concord is pretty far (thus I didn't make it this spring) and Antioch seems way, way too far for me. So, I'll be sad if both sales are on the far side of the county from me (Concord and Antioch).
On the other hand, having the member sale on Saturday sounds great to me. It's really hard for me to get to a sale in a timely manner due to needing to wait until husband is home from work which is sometimes pretty late (and that wouldn't be an issue on a Saturday).
Final random point: if you do move it and face advertising to a new market, consider not headlining advertisments/emails saying "ETC Sale" as often happens. While a perfectly decent internal name, it's totally confusing to outsiders (and even many members) who don't know what it means and I'm sure some people don't even notice the listings for it as a result. (Not that we've been hurting for eager customers, of course).
Anyway, I'm just a buyer (the selling process seems way, way too time-consuming and involved for me to take part in it). But those are just my two cents.
James @ the Spring sale the cashiers were asking for zip codes. What is the percentage of shoppers from the various areas?
ReplyDeleteNot sure of the logistics, just throwing out a couple different scenarios, but can set up be Friday night so drop off can start as early as 8am on Saturday? That would put the end of clean up around 7pm.
If that wasn't an option due to cost, the Friday night volunteers are already leaving the sale around 9 or 9:30pm arent they? So if they choose a Saturday night shift it would not be any later.
I think the sale would be just as successful in Antioch as it has been in Martinez. The sale has already earned a name for itself and each year has continued to get bigger and bring more people from all surrounding areas.
I live in Oakley so would I like to see it in Antioch...Absolutely!! As a seller and shopper over the last 5 years I have literally driven from Oakley to my work in Dublin, directly driving to Concord or Martinez in Friday night traffic then back to Oakley.
Pleasant Hill Venue: We had a Vendor Fair several years ago at the Pleasant Hill Parks and Rec which has closed for Construction, but the Winslow Building is available for rental. It is located at 2590 Pleasant Hill Rd and rents for $80 an hour which looks like a Saturday would take 15 hours = $1200. A Pleasant Hill resident (member) could book the venue and we would receive a 10% discount.
@Fran - I did create a zip code report, but can't remember where I saved it. I will keep looking though.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Friday night setup, that might be an option. The main reason we are looking into a Saturday/Sunday sale is because we would rather not have the members fighting HWY 4 traffic on Friday afternoon. With traffic, that could add a lot of unnecessary sitting in the vehicles. The only real viable option for that would probably be something like starting setup late Friday night, something like 6pm. That way most of the Friday traffic would have died down and there would be a smoother drive to the fairgrounds.
Do we have an estimate for the cost to rent the Antioch facility and using this as our budget, wouldn't that open up more options in the Concord/PH area? The area along Monument has proven to be a great location and there are several schools nearby that would probably work. And I know this sounds selfish, but it would be tough for me to commit to either selling or buying at an Antioch location due to the drive.
ReplyDeleteLynnette, in the past members have looked into schools for rentals, but the problem is that we have to work around their schedule, which is often packed with fall sports (basketball) and other community events. If you know of a school that's willing, we'd be interested!
ReplyDelete