Street Market Report - Feb 3, 2013

It was a good day despite the rain. We made a record profit due to our recent frugality. We plan to buy two more 10x10 canopy tents with our petty cash this week to continue the new barrier between the south side of Carrall St. and the Greenway. Brandon was happy about it, so we will try and expand the idea. We also had a spontaneous act of generosity. A passer by gave us $40 and told us that they wanted to give people free coffee.

Fund Raising Report

1) Table/Tent Rental: $116.00 (Too many vendors signed up again, showing demand for tables and tents)

2) 50/50 Raffle: $41.81 (410 tickets sold, $102.81 in pot, FP=$51, SP = $10)

3) Coffee/Juice Sales: $81.75 (Someone came along and donated $40 worth of coffee for the next 40 customers. Cool day!)

Costs for the day were $18.96 at Costco for cream, and $2 for another trash grabber.

Profits for the day = $218.60

Total in Petty Cash = $1,787.38

Vendor Counts: 

140 @ 12:00 noon (way better than last week!)

92 @ 3pm

General Report

Louise did not show up, so our vendor outreach was a little hampered. Will Damen did not show up either. 

On the plus side, many of the vendors were asking about where our meetings were, in order to be able to sign up for the tents and tables and get the half price deal. We had 5 vendors show up on Saturday, which is a record. 

Volunteers generally did a great job, despite a few of them working for the first time. RPICs Rob M, and Glenn F kept good control of the market. 

The man that burned down our south-west fence two weeks ago was back and was misbehaving. Boomer offered him a free coffee and he calmed down. The south-west fence seems to still be a source of annoyance for the illicit drinkers that occupy the park, and we need to work harder to reach out to them, or find them a place to go and drink during market hours. The hot goods corner continues to be improved by the fencing, and we found two vendors to occupy the inside middle of the fence to prevent fence hoppers. 

The main improvement we made this week was creating a barrier between the east side of Carrall St. and the bike path and sidewalk (the Greenway). I have included a picture of the result, not only does it prevent vendor and customer 'leakage' onto the bike path, it also creates a visual barrier for people just walking south or north. They can still enter the market, but they can also just walk by and not participate. Hopefully this allays some of the criticisms of our neighbours. Brandon of the Pidgon restaurant seemed to appreciate it, and he said that he had a successful day Sunday. Our goal is to extend this barrier down the entire street (funding permitting), and get a special mural painted so it will be visually pleasing. 

Tidbit of note... We had an ultrasound machine for sale at the market yesterday - I've included a picture of that as well.

The park was spotless by 6pm. The garbage truck came shortly after 6pm. General agreement that piling our garbage in the north west alley is not desirable since all the residual feces get mixed up with it, and when we have to shovel it into the truck it creates quite an unpleasant experience. We will try and move back to making a neat pile of garbage on the police parking area when the market is closing.