A Brand-New Record, Sort Of…
As you will know if you have been following my blogs that we encountered a couple of major hurdles at the end of last year. George got really ill and I was worn out from trying to keep up on our inventory. But we did have others helping keep our booth open in Oliver when we couldn’t be there ourselves in late November and early December. Thanks to Sherrill, Don, and Mel, we did not miss a single vending date at that venue. Their work helped us set a new sales record.
Our total jar count for sales in 2018 was 1,447. The total number of jars sold in 2019 is a bit of a mystery at this point. That’s because we have somehow misplaced the sales sheets from the last two weekends in December. However, what makes this even more interesting is that our total sales up to and including December 15, 2019, was 1,448 – one more than our total for the entire year of 2018. I’m hoping we passed 1,500 jars and that’ll be a record I won’t try to beat.
January 2020 Up From 2019
Now that we have been vending at the Oliver Indoor Flea Market since August 2017, we have a great deal of data to refer back on. The total for January 2018 was 50 jars sold (based on just four vending dates). January 2019 saw us in Oliver all four weekends (8 vending dates) and we sold 71 jars. Last month, another 4 weekend/8 vending date month saw us go through a total of 78 jars. I’m not as concerned about the numbers as I once was, but it is good to see we are doing well.
I Can Keep Jamming In January
With the two freezers we put outside last summer, it has changed a lot regarding inventory availability. For example, usually, when we run out of peppers a number of our spicy products disappear until late summer when the pepper crops are harvested. With the freezers, I stockpiled on several pepper varieties and have been able to produce some of our popular products and have them available fresh from the kitchen in the traditional off-season time of year.
This has helped with sales and has allowed me to change the pace I have been working at. Now, in January and going into February and March, I can focus on filling holes in the inventory instead of trying to create new products using ingredients that are readily available at this time of year. Oh, and speaking of new products, earlier this month I introduced my own brand of Garlic Salt. I’m not sure how many dry items I will add but so far this one has worked out well.
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