Is it really that hard???

OK! I need to go off on a rant for a minute here....

I did another craft fair this last weekend, I must admit it could have gone better. Sure I sold some stuff and I got my name out there and I had fun and all it was still very frustrating! I don't want to come across as a malcontent but is it so hard to limit the number of jewelry vendors at each show? The last 3 fairs I've done have been almost 40% jewelry! I get it, there are a lot of people out there creating beautiful jewelry and that is great! but do I have to have a space right next to all of them? I was talking to friend of mine (yep, you guessed it, she sells jewelry too!) and we figured that maybe 10% of the people that come to those craft fairs are going to buy jewelry, so say you have 100 booths and 40 of them are jewelry... not really good odds that your booth will be the one they choose to buy from! Every person who buys jewelry at those fairs has their own particular taste, they might hate my stuff and love the items for sale at the booth across from me (yes I did say ACROSS from me) or they might like mine better, I think it is safe to say that out of all the customers at any given craft fair about 1% are going to see any given vendors stuff and HAVE TO HAVE IT! I don't know about most people, but if I walk into a fair and there is a jewelry vendor right by the door that has a pretty necklace I choose to buy, what are the chances that I am going to purchase another necklace from a diferent person down the line... Even if they have one I love? Not good I think! Another person I was talking to this month told me that she was under the impression that the unspoken rule is that there shouldn't be any more then 10% of each kind of booth (ie: jewelry, ceramics... ) well at the fair this weekend there were 6 booths within sight of each other selling almost exactly the same items... Sure all of their stuff was beautiful (fused glass pendants and earrings) but I really doubt if any of them did well because there was just too much competition. I love doing the fairs but it this is so frustrating!

Another problem I have is when I go to a CRAFT fair there are companies selling bathroom remodels or big store chain distributors selling items, to me a craft fair is the person who created the stuff selling it... not some big company that isn't all that worried about how much they sell because they have 100 stores across the country... Having those kind of booths makes the whole fair seem less creative and personal to me. ok, I just had to get that off of my chest! I am sure I am not the only person who is running into this problem... Maybe we should all get together and put on our own craft fair!