Street Market Report - November 3, 2013

The micro-enterprise and micro-entrepreneurial aspects of the market are truly really amazing.
I watch people buy and sell things all day, and it never gets boring. Sometimes the seller does not want to sell, sometimes the buyer does not want to buy, sometimes one partner is pretending to want or not want in order to skew the price to a more favorable value. It is an incredible aspect of human nature that can not be separated from what it means to be human. Every piece of technology that we enjoy, every comfort, every piece of art, had its origins in the desire to create value... To trade something that you have, to gain something that you need. This is why I love the DTES Street Market.

We had a full day today - over 180 vendors at noon. Quite an achievement given that the days are getting very short and the temperature very brisk. We had a bout of rain on Saturday, and I feared that the vendors would not show up. It is strange that I always have this fear after almost two years at the market. My fears should clearly be the opposite - that more and more vendors will come with no where to go.

It was quite peaceful today, only a few incidents that barely warrant mentioning. An arrest for a stolen bike, an ambulance for one of the drinkers. Par for the course on a Sunday.

We set up 13 tents in the market on Sunday, and we are about to buy many more from the generous equipment grant we received from Central City Foundation through Hope in Shadows. Soon the Market will be covered in new tents.

Financial Summary from Revenue Experiment

1) Coffee/Pop Sales = $136.65
2) 50/50 Raffle = $46.25
3) Tents/Tables = $115.00

Total Revenue for the day = $297.90
Total Spending for the week = $247.70 (mostly membership renewal at costco, extra pop, etc..)

Petty cash now = $1,213.04
($205 now in our bank account - the rest in petty cash for misc expenditures)

We reached an important milestone in the history of the Street Market this weekend...  Since the beginning of the revenue generation experiment, we have had more then $20,000 in revenue flow through the operation for coffee and pop sales, table and tent rental, and 50/50 raffle. This is important, because the people of the Downtown Eastside are now very close to becoming the second biggest funder of street market operations!

Here is a brief summary of top 3 funders of the Street Market over the past two years...

1) City of Vancouver - $37,000.00
(with $3,000 remaining upon delivery of a final report)
2) Central City Foundation through Hope In Shadows - $22,150.00
(for equipment only)
3) THE PEOPLE OF THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE - $20,338.77
(this is raw revenue and not profits. An estimate of gross profits by deducting cost of pop, coffee, and cups, etc... with $9,519.98 spent on expendables = 10,818.79 gross profits, and a 53% profit margin, an additional 9,585.75 was spent on additional labor for the market above CoV grant-paid stipends, and all the tents and tables and other capital equipment that we purchased with our own sweat and toil)

This statistic alone shows the power of hard work and tenacity when trying to fund a social enterprise. Thank you to all the people that came down to the market week after week and bought a coffee from us, it has really made a difference, and we could never have created this market without you! Thank you to everyone!

Vendor Count = 180 @ noon
Tent Count = 13 set up (6 in the park, 2 on North Carrall, 5 on South Carrall)