You may have heard, or read, that we have made the difficult decision to not attend the North American Irish Dance Championships (“Nationals”) in 2023. As I said in the email that went out, we had every intention of going. We put it on the planning calendar. We were coming up with great ideas for gift items to offer there, many of which we will still go forward with. All of our planning for the year has been leaning toward preparing for Nationals. But then we received the vending contract for the event and were forced to reconsider.
Believe us when we say that we understand that costs have risen since the pandemic. We see and feel that every day. Rising prices of gas and hotel rooms, increased prices for products, shipping that has doubled in some cases, and even higher tolls are all daily reminders that our economy is still struggling to bounce back. Thank you to the many Feis committees who have NOT raised vendor fees! Like them, we are doing our best to keep costs down for our customers but, and I am not going to sugar coat it, it has been a struggle.
This brings us to the decision process for vending at the Nationals. Here’s a little glimpse into what goes into planning for a major and all of the variables in the decision process:
First, you have to weigh costs and expenses against potential revenue – both tangible and intangible. Tangible costs include travel to and from the event (gas, a hotel along the way if it is too far to drive in one day, a hotel the night before so you can get an early start setting up, tolls, the return trip), the vendor fee, wifi (Most venues used for majors dampen or block mobile hotspots so you have to use their service), electricity, dock fees (which are fees to load and unload the cargo from our van into the venue), and package handling fees if you ship items directly to the venue. (We try to minimize this by bringing as much as we can with us, but there’s only so much we can fit in our van, and over a 6-day competition we often need to make restock orders).
There is also lodging during the event, parking, meals, and of course the cost of goods (we need to have things to sell, after all). The intangible costs are the stress and long hours leading up to and during the event, the intense stress of moving in and setting up with limited time to be ready when vendor sales open, and the physical and mental fatigue from 6 long days of back-to-back vending. And, as a business, we need to very seriously calculate what our potential revenue can be and whether it justifies the cost.
Figuring out potential revenue is tough. How many vendors will be there and who are they? What do they sell? How many dancers are registered/expected? Is admission free? meaning more grandparents, siblings, and parents will be there? Or is costly, limiting potential shoppers? What local attractions are nearby? Is Disney World in close proximity? If so, just accept the fact that very few discretionary dollars will be coming your way; they are all being saved for “the Mouse.” Where are the vendors going to be located in relation to the dancing? In the hallway just outside the ballrooms and easily visible and accessible to attendees waiting for a competition? Or tucked in a room off the beaten path out of sight and out of mind? The location of the vendors in relation to the dancing is probably the biggest factor in whether the vendors as a whole will be successful.
The second biggest factor for an individual vendor’s success is their location in relation to the other vendors. Where are the dancers entering the vendor area? Will they walk past 6 tables of socks and tape before they get to mine? What sets me apart enough to make them want to walk past the other vendors, presumably all nice enough folks and many of them friends of mine, to shop with me? What do I have to offer that is unique? Surely not just my bubbly personality. This is where knowing who the other vendors are is key. For example, if Rutherford and Irish Peach are there, there is no point in me bringing Irish Candy; they’ve got that market cornered. If Head for the World and DanceBling are there, there is no point in bringing those marvelous sequin slippers, even if they’re to die for.
Most of these variables are easy enough to determine for a feis. And honestly, most of the Feis Vendor Chairpeople we work with take all of this into account and set up the traffic flow to give vendors visibility. That’s all we ask for – a fighting chance to provide the right items of the right quality for the right price so we can earn the customers’ business.
When it comes to the majors, though, all bets are off. We vendors rarely know what we have signed up for until we arrive. The registration numbers generally aren’t readily available. We very rarely know where we will be ahead of time, and we have absolutely no influence in that area. We usually only know which other vendors are going by word of mouth and the “vendor grapevine” (yes, we talk to one another). All of these factors affect the tangible rewards – the revenue. Will I make enough money to cover my expenses? There are, of course, intangible rewards that have to be considered. Being out there and available to support the people who have come to rely on you throughout the feis year is huge. Getting your name and brand out there in front of teachers and dancers from other parts of the world to expand your online presence is important.
This ties back into the question “Where are the vendors located in relation to the dancing?” Dancers, parents, and especially teachers and adjudicators don’t tend to stroll through the vendor area unless it is immediately accessible to the hall or they are in desperate need of something, in which case they will be too focused on filling the immediate need to pay any attention to which vendors are there. We like to think that “saving the day” by having that essential item or fixing a broken zipper or lost button in a pinch sears us into the hearts and minds of the recipient. In reality, the event is so stressful that the vendor’s name is forgotten. There’s no blame there- in a crisis, people have more immediate problems to focus on. Building relationships takes time.
So now you have an idea of the many factors that go into deciding whether or not to attend a feis or a major. What specifically led us to decide against attending the Nationals this year? This isn’t going to make me popular with the planning committee, but it’s well past time for a bit of transparency in the Irish Dance world. The cost for vendor booths at this year’s Nationals is prohibitive.
A “Junior Vendor” booth (who came up with that name?) that is just 8’ X 8’ with 2 tables is $3500. A 10’ X 10’ booth with 3 tables is $5000. A 10’ X 20’ booth with 4 tables (the smallest option that would work for us) is $8,500. The largest booth, 16’ X 24’ with 6 tables (our preferred option for majors) is a whopping $12,500. Let me say that again:
Twelve thousand, five hundred dollars.
Now to be fair, that gasp-inducing price includes a discount on one hotel room, wifi and electricity at the booth, and all dock fees. But it is still twelve thousand and five hundred dollars. That is over $2,000 a day! Even if we did cut what we brought enough to fit into a “Junior Vendor” booth or one of the 10’ X 10’ booths, those options do NOT include Wifi, electricity, dock fees, or a reserved hotel room at a ‘discounted’ price. So if you are a vendor considering a smaller booth, be sure to take all of those expenses into account. The fees for a normal feis range between $200-$650, with most being right around $300 or $350. Even at the higher end of the range at $650, we could go to nineteen normal feis for the price of going to Nationals.
We considered going at the $8500 level. We worked out how we’d lay out the tables and what we’d omit to make room on the tables. We went over the costs with a fine-toothed comb. At that level we would get one hotel room at a “discounted” price which would be about $800 with taxes and fees. Wifi, electricity and dock fees would be included. Travel to and from the event would be another $500-$600. And then we’d have cost-of-goods – ramping up our inventory to support the event on top of staying stocked for the feiseanna on our schedule. Could we pack our own meals or take an instant pot to cut down on dining costs? Definitely. Could we manage without help to save labor costs and a second hotel room? Probably? We’d be exhausted and probably wind up sick as dogs at the end, but probably. We’ve done it before, including the sick as dogs part. We could probably do it again.
But on top of all the expenses and the massive workload of nearly a full week of vending… majors don’t actually pay very well.
From experience, we guesstimated that the first evening of sales would be like a decent feis, but compressed into 4 hours. That’s good money, but extremely high-intensity, exhausting work. The remaining days of a major, though, tend to be comparable to a slow feis. Most people already have what they need, unless they forgot it or left it in the room at another hotel too far away to quickly grab or ran out of a consumable like tape unexpectedly. Most of the people who need to buy something for a major will do so on that first day, assuming they didn’t stock up on it in the weeks leading up to the event.
So going to a 6-day major is more like going to one decent feis and 5 slow feis. Would one decent feis and 5 slow feis cover the expenses we know we will incur? Maybe. But just barely. What if it’s 6 slow feis? Or 4 slow feis and 2 really bad feis? Then we are in trouble. We tend to make our money at a major with gift items. What could we do to boost revenue without dramatically increasing costs? What item(s) could we provide at a reasonable price that the dancers would want? We came up with a few really fun ideas, which you will probably be seeing in the near future. We added in the value of intangible rewards – being available for our loyal customers, getting our name out there to dancers and teachers from other parts of the world who don’t know us yet, being a part of the excitement. Yes, FOMO is real and it hits us too. We want to be a part of big events. But we eventually decided that we want this like we want a third slice of cake: it’s tempting, yes, but we know we’ll regret it.
We went over this again and again and again. And then another time or two just to be sure. We painstakingly, agonizingly, beat this dead horse to a pulp. If you don’t believe me, ask my poor sisters and ever-suffering husband. I am sure they are more than tired of the subject and much more well-versed in the ins and outs of being an Irish Dance vendor than they ever wanted to be! The bottom line (at last!) is that as much as we want to make it work, as responsible business owners who want to still be in business and able to pay our employees for years to come, we have to decline.
Instead, we are going to fill the days leading up to Nationals with a bunch of great deals to make sure you have the chance to get everything you need. To start us off, free shipping. On all orders, with no limit, from now until Nationals. Use the code SHIPFREE at checkout from 5/17 thru 7/8/2023 to claim.