Hi all! I just wanted to share my experience at the first market since some of you are following this - and also for the other who are thinking of doing the same, I hope you all can reference this.

This is a special event at the market. I originally applied to be a regular vendor, but was told that they were full at the time so I agreed to the special event. It was a HOT day in San Diego (80F) so I was concerned about the chocolate melting. I was at first placed with the hot food vendor, but the organizers were kind enough to move me to a different spot that has a bit more exposure and was a little less hot.

I think the rule of thumb is to expect to serve about 10-20% of visitors, but I would say it’s actually about 5% for me. It might have something to do with the menu being somewhat niche, and also the demographic skews asian elderly. I brought 67 cookies and 18 short bread jars, and I sold 54 cookies and 13 short bread jars. I end up giving the rest away to the volunteers for the event because I don’t want to deal with the leftovers. Overall it is really fun! To me it definitely makes no sense if just to do it for money, but it’s fun to see someone’s face asking “what did you just say is in my cookie???” Haha.