Overview

This blog covers us revisiting our first vending experience participating in The Women in Business Craft & Vendor Fair at the Courtyards of Andover in Andover, Minnesota. I reflect on the challenges and lessons learned from the event. This includes booth setup, pricing strategies and customer interactions.

Applications, Payments & Planning

I saw that they had some open spots on Facebook and figured I could just give it another shot. I signed up on September 7th, 2025 and was accepted on October 5, 2025. We just had to pay if we received the email and we were set. The booth fee was still $50 like the previous time I had vended. I paid with Venmo since they weren't taking cash this time around.

Before the Event & Setup

I did no real prep since Twin Cities Con had just happened, so everything was already set aside for this event as well. We tossed everything into the car after getting coffee and just went over to load in around 8:09am. The load in time was the same as the last time I had vended as well, 8am to 9:45am.

I had pulled a muscle Friday evening, so my husband did most of the heavy lifting while I dropped off my ST-19 at check in and began to set up the table with what had already been brought in. I asked for a second chair as well since the table only came with one by default.

We had everything set up by about 9:30ish, but I had sent my husband home to grab some ornaments and extra Panic Puffs. I have no idea why I assumed I didn't have enough. I think my booth looked okay and I eventually named the area I caged in the prototypes and sold out designs as the Prototype Prison.

The Event Itself

The event opened and it was mostly dead. Two girls who had seen me at their school event for Rum River Elementary found my booth though and were trying to figure out what was new that they had not seen the previous year. They also wanted the Kitsune which is still not ready to be in production or sold. Hopefully 2026!

I decided to keep my convention pricing despite knowing that craft fair people really don't like to spend. I know the larger plush were pretty expensive, but I felt everything else was pretty normally priced for what it is. I did see someone selling a bunch of stickers they clearly didn't design at 2 for $1 but my husband said that it's not the same as mine and I shouldn't worry. I don't know if they even sold any, but it's a reminder to me that is what I have as competition anyways.

I had a single transaction in cash at 11:20am of two sushi cat stickers. The person asked for a $1 discount to get them at $5 instead of $6. Not knowing that this would be my only sale of the day, I agreed.

I mostly just watched people walk by my booth. I noticed there were a ton of food vendors and oddly very few actual crafters. I expected at least a crochet booth, but there really wasn't even that really. I basically read about some angel tree drama on Threads, looked it up on Tiktok and that was it. I should have brought something to draw with.

I know the event was advertised around town and on Facebook. It has been on the news and has happened every year for the past 6 years. I am not sure where it fell flat. I know I have more items overall, so I should have done better than the previous year if sales had actually happened. Craft fairs just confuse me.

Someone walked by my booth and said that "this is not for me" and walked to the dog food next to me saying "but this is" and I couldn't help but laugh. I don't know if they knew it was dog food or not. My neighbor was pretty nice though. She was there to help her son and his wife sell things because she was furloughed, so only he was bringing home any money. Apparently he is a chef, so he made food to sell at this event. I assume the dog items were the mothers since she had two separate areas with her setup so the dog items and the food items for people were not in the same space.

I started packing up around 2:30pm so we could get things that never left the boxes into the vehicle. We took a group photo a little after 3pm with the check that was going to the high school. My husband loaded the car up while we were waiting for everyone. He snapped a photo of the group from where our table was and showed it to me after we got home.

What Worked & What Did Not

I like that they provided tables. I should check my old blog as I can't remember if they did or didn't in 2023. I believe tablecloth and electricity were also options we could have selected. I didn't select either, but potentially worth noting.

I am not sure what happened, but traffic felt much less this year than the previous year. They said there were 600 people. It absolutely did not feel like that.

I do love that Caribou Coffee was within walking distance. We made NO PURCHASES at this event - not even food despite being very hungry. We split it for our "lunch" as well as some rice cakes we brought to snack on and decided we'd have pizza at home for dinner. I really do love the Ho Ho Mint Ice Coffee. 10/10

I do enjoy taking the group photo with the vendors as well as showing off the check they were donating to Anoka High School. So yeah, maybe the event was bad for me, but at least we did something good for the community in the process.

I thought the people who added their own soaps to the bathrooms were clever in their marketing.

Conclusion

Well, it was terrible for me sales wise. I am not sure what I was expecting but I knew given how the year had been going that there was a very high chance I would not make back table and unfortunately I was correct. I once again was overconfident in my ability to actually make money at a craft fair. Will I return? Probably because I never learn.

The Details (TLDR)

Event	Women's in Business Craft & Vendor Fair
Date	November 15, 2025
Location	Courtyards of Andover, 13545 Martin St NW, Andover, MN 55304
Hours	10am–3pm CST, loading time 8am
Total Vendors	70
Attendance	~600
Travelworthy	Good for locals within a 10 minute drive, not worth for anyone outside of the local area or out of state.
Booth Cost	$50 for a 10x10 space
Total Sales	$5 (this is before all costs are taken out)
Transaction Fees	$0
Taxes	$0.38
Total Profit	-$45.38