The 45-Minute Jewelry Display

I woke up this morning to a link on Kate’s blog discussing the 30-minute jewelry display. Our setup isn’t quite 30 minutes, although it could probably be if I wasn’t so fussy, but it’s a solid 45 minutes. (I like to allow an hour for setup, which leaves 15 minutes to slurp coffee and chat with other vendors.) My process is differs from hers in a key area – merchandise accessibility between shows – and so I wanted to share it with you here.

Here’s a shot of our typical summertime display:

Our summertime kit consists of two carefully packed suitcases, two crates, a shelf, three tables, our tent, two chairs, our vinyl banner, and a cooler full of water. Here’s a closer look at how everything is laid out.

This is a stack of stuff waiting to be loaded into my truck. The tent and tables are off-camera, as is our sign (which is hand-carried to avoid creases) and cooler (in the kitchen waiting to be filled), but this is an overview of our suitcases, shelf, and crates. One of the crates is empty and will carry my sweater, notebook, and our breakfast; the other is permanently packed with our gift boxes.

This is the first suitcase, our big green monster. It contains all of our displays (busts, earring rack, easel displays, ornament rack, inserts and trays, business card holder), our tablecloths (four each of purple king-sized flat sheets andgreen twin-size flat sheets), our display bowls/shopping baskets (a custom order from Adorn with A and M), extra bags and tissue paper (bottom pocket), extra travel mugs (useful when you remember to pack a gallon jug of water but no cups), and dead D batteries, which we use to weight down the back of our easel displays. The trays store some of our small “summertime special” $15 and under items that we don’t list online. This suitcase stays packed as-is between shows (year-round!) because it contains all of our non-essential items.

Our smaller suitcase (a gift of plaid from my mother-out-law) holds our essential between-show items. A few bags with tissue paper nestle in the front pocket. The inside show pockets hold little things like calculators, a lint brush, masking tape, and trash bags, while the upper pocket holds our shop policies sign and mirror. The plastic zip-top compartment usually reserved for toiletries holds paper towels or napkins, SPF 50 sunscreen, Good-Smellin’ Bug Stuff, and a few other essentials.One latched-lid display tray holds all of our earrings, while the other holds our more delicate merchandise like illusion necklaces and crystal ornaments. A large sturdy gift box from chocolates I got last admin day, which is hiding under the white box in this picture, holds our extra inventory – things that we have duplicates of. The white box holds all of our paper goods – sale signs, business cards, tags for new merchandise, extra sales slip pads, extra credit card slips, pens, markers, etc. Our cash box sits on top of the latched trays. Under the blue bag is a small snap-top plastic shoebox-style container that I keep my current projects and adjustment kit in (crimps, wire, clasps, earwires, clip-ons, and other findings for those on-the-fly custom adjustments). On top of that is a shallow cardboard box with my tools. Finally, the blue bag contains all of our current inventory, tagged and ready to go.

Yes, we really do toss all of our inventory in a reusable shopping bag at the end of every show. I’ve never had breakage or damage occur, and because it’s nestled securely between other elements in our suitcase, our tags don’t even get battered. We’ve done shows where we keep the inventory in the display trays, and they weren’t a good experience. For me, this inventory bag/dual-suitcase trick is the key to our system. Not only does it make for extremely simple setup/breakdown, it allows me to easily access all of my inventory between shows, without digging through multiple suitcases to find it. Before we settled into this system, I spent more than one Monday digging through trays, boxes, and bags looking for something that had sold online. In season, we sometimes have shows every weekend, and so to unpack completely between shows was a waste of time for us. Another bonus is that when we have two shows back-to-back (or a two-day show), like this weekend, the only thing we need to remove from my truck is the small suitcase.

So…how does setup work? Our morning goes a little something like this.

• Grumble ourselves awake
• Climb into the (hopefully pre-packed) truck and head to Wawa for coffee
• Get on-site and unload everything into a pile; move the truck.
• Drink coffee.
• Set up / secure tent. Set up tables, chairs, and tablecloths. The crates go on their side with the shelf on top to create a staging area for us and some much-needed height to our display.
• Drink coffee.
• Set up displays on table; tape/weigh down.
• Lay out / hang merchandise: color-coordinated items on easels, larger items on busts; earrings / ornaments on racks; prom / bridal / dichroic glass in trays on (de-linted) black velvet; “summer specials” boxes opened and arranged in trays; everything else strewn about in a random but aesthetically pleasing fashion.
• Drink coffee
• Hang signs
• Drink coffee

Remove the coffee-drinking and the inevitable bickering that occurs between two very much non-morning people, and you’ve got yourself a quick and dirty setup that holds up quite nicely.

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