5 Quick tips on How To Shop at Local Bazaars

Christmas is a time of gift giving. Bazaars help us with ideas and give us an opportunity to see what our local business talent is doing. You’ll find handmade knits, painted crafts, and printed customizable Christmas cards. There’s so much to see at bazaars and there are ways to get the most out of all of them.

How do you shop at Local Bazaars

Have a budget and plan: these vendor events will have a variety of different tables and businesses to look at. Have a plan of what kind of unique vendors you’d like to talk to and make note of the ones you are interested in but never knew about. If you have a cousin that loves knits, look for a vendor that does it as a hobby and support her passion. You’ll find vendors that make their own hairclips for great stocking stuffers for girls. You can research who will be at the event by joining the facebook event or even contacting the administrative team and asking.
Bring cash: All of these vendors have different ways of doing business. You cannot expect all of them to have the capability to be able to debit or credit card. Cash is always the best way to do transactions. For these events, I usually bring about $100. Most tables will have sale items.
Keep track of business cards: When you learn of a new business that you didn’t know existed, you can follow them or connect with them at a later date by keeping their business card. If you follow them, you can sometimes get good deals on products closer to Christmas. Since they are small businesses, mostly likely they will go out of their way to give you fantastic customer service.
Eat before you go: When you come to these shows, there’s always some sort of delicious sweets that will be very tempting. I’m saying you can’t indulge in your sweet tooth, I’m saying you shouldn’t spend $40 on cupcakes when that $40 was supposed to be for your mother-in-law’s present. Keep your budget in mind and don’t go to these events hungry!
Be friendly: These are small business owners looking to get more traffic to their business. Most of them take the time to craft their product themselves. They put passion and hard work to making something beautiful. Take the time to know your local businesses and understand why they do what they do. Building that relationship creates a better understanding of who you are supporting and why you have decided to support local businesses. This is what bazaars are about.

Jemi Smith owns a mom community website called momsgotodurham.com that creates programming for mom and her children. You can e-mail her at jemiechevarria@gmail.com or call her at (647)785-5851