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March 7-8, Cranbury Craft Show, Cranbury, NJ

March 7-8, Cranbury Craft Show, Cranbury. Contact: Cranbury Education Foundation, PO Box 332, Cranbury, NJ 08512. Phone: 609-395-1700, ext. 411. E-mail: mt2vac@aol.com or katgathe@comcast.net. Space fee: $75-$145 plus donation of an item. Space sizes: 5x10 to 10x10. 100% indoors. Exhibitors: 110. Hours: 10-4 Saturday, 11-4 Sunday. Admission: $5 for adults, $2 for seniors, $1 for kids under 14.

By Ann Watson
New York Reporter
E-mail: ann@watsonandforbes.com
Medium: Fused-glass jewelry

The 2009 craft season found me at the 12th annual Cranbury Craft Show, a fundraiser for the Cranbury Education Foundation. The CEF's past efforts have resulted in capital purchases, technology enhancements, improved programming and teacher grants. The show was held at Cranbury Elementary School, in the old and new gyms, the cafeteria and the hallway between those locations. Setup was on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. and on Saturday from 7:30 to 9:45 a.m., with plenty of eager, polite school volunteers to help with finding assigned spaces and unloading.

Making my way to the show was quite easy. I followed the craft-show signs for about 20 miles, through the town of Princeton to Cranbury. I loved seeing the signs, and they were everywhere! I chose to set up on Friday night, and my husband accompanied me for the weekend, so he did the unloading, and I tried to be as efficient as possible. After a two-and-a-half month break, it was a bit of a struggle to remember how I had set up the display so many, many times before. It took us two hours to finish. High-five to us.
 
On Saturday morning, the committee served a continental breakfast to all exhibitors. It included bagels, doughnuts, muffins, fruits, juice, coffee and tea. And the committee members came around to each booth, making sure we all knew about the breakfast and partook in the spread.

I really did not know what to expect from the event, as I had not done a school show in quite a long time, and with the present economy, such shows are always a gamble. I walked the show prior to the opening on Saturday, and the first thing I noticed was a decent selection of exhibitors. The quality was quite good, but the displays were lacking, as many exhibitors' booths were open to their neighbors', but then again, I had to remind myself that this was a school show.

Customer traffic was slow but steady on Saturday. The weather was glorious, as spring gave us an early gift. People were out raking, biking, walking and enjoying nearly 80-degree temperatures. Exhibitors expressed their pleasure with the foot traffic toward the end of day one. Most customers were carrying at least one bag and seemed to stop and look at each booth and talk with exhibitors. It was a very friendly show overall.

Customers talked with us about our valances, the quality and whether they had seen us before at other shows. Some took cards and information for future purchases, and many others bought from us right then and there. We had a good time talking with customers, and Saturday ended with all expenses covered.

Sunday's weather was less pleasant, with temperatures in the 60s and cloudy skies. It felt as though it would start raining at any minute. On top of that, it was the first day of daylight-saving time. The show started at 11 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. Customers were again remarkably friendly and eager to talk, but we had about half the sales of Saturday. On the plus side, the volunteers came around to ask how everyone was doing and to thank exhibitors for participating in this year's show. They also asked for suggestions on how to make future shows even better.

"We found that our attendance was up fairly significantly on Saturday, by a few hundred people,"¯ promoter Deanna Anderson told me. "That was definitely a function of the weather. People were happy to be out and about. We heard from the businesses in town that they were really hopping, especially on Saturday. I also think people just need something happy to do right now, given the state of the economy. Our attendance numbers on Sunday were flat to last year, but the numbers for food sales were higher because it wasn't as nice, so people were not inclined to leave the building to go into town for lunch."¯

I did not make a ton of money at this show, but that certainly was not because of a lack of effort on the part of the committee members to bring customers through the doors. I honestly believe that the sales were a result of the uncertainties of these times. I will return to this show next year, and times will inevitably get better. This show will be one of those hidden gems for many years to come.