Elisabeth Suarez calculates the costs of the German baked goods she creates and sells at Pearl’s Holiday Night Market down to the cookie.
That includes everything from the cost of ingredients — which have risen precipitously in the past two years — to the vendor fee, gas for travel, insurance and her time baking and decorating her offerings, which this year include a miniature Linzer cake, Stollen and gingerbread cookies.
“Then I come up with a profit margin that I think is acceptable,” said Suarez, who grew up in the Black Forest region of Germany and later married a Texan. “And that’s acceptable to the customer, because if the customer isn’t buying, I’m not going to make anything.”
Her prices range from $4 for a gingerbread cookie to $40 for a tin of cookies, a gingerbread house or small Stollen.
Holiday markets can be a great place for artisans like Suarez to sell to an eager public looking for handmade gift items. But the proliferation of pop-up markets — they can now be found in coffee shops, bars, stores and malls — can also make it difficult for these micro-entrepreneurs to figure out which markets will be worth their time and effort.
A “San Antonio Vendors” group on Facebook lists markets seeking vendors. They’ll list the dates, times and vendor fees, which range from as little as $15 up to $200. Some posts hint at the glut of markets. “We still have vendor spots available this Sun Dec. 17 $25 also need two food trucks $46 please text,” read one posted three days prior to the event.
Others indicate the success of a well-curated market. “We’re doing a Part 2 – Holidaze SunDaze Market today,” read a recent post. “It was such a hit yesterday!”
A bad location, not enough promotion or a mismatch between what a maker is selling and what customers are interested in buying can make for an expensive waste of time.
The San Antonio Report spoke with more than a dozen artisans, artists and makers who ply their wares at popups and holiday markets about what it’s like to stand behind a table of handmade goods and make their pitch directly to potential customers.
While almost everyone had a story about a market experience that didn’t work for them, many also described a tight-knit community of makers and promoters who look out for one another.
From pop-up to brick-and-mortar
While selling at popups is a side hustle for most artisans, many expressed the desire to turn their business into a full-time job and eventually to sell from a brick-and-mortar location.
Mike Weil, the owner of Blue Armadillo Sewing Co., envisions a studio-cum-maker space, where would-be textile artists could rent time and use the company’s tools to make their own creations, while he sells his textiles and crafts.
Weil was working only his third popup market last week at a holiday market hosted by Launch SA, a small business incubator housed inside the Central Library downtown.
At his table, brightly colored throw pillows and stuffed fabric ornaments with well-known images of San Antonio and Texas — the Tower of the Americas, the Alamo, cowboy boots and a bluebonnet — were on offer for $20 a pillow or $100 for a set of six, along with fabric printed with those designs for home sewers.
Alexis Quiroga, the founder of PAWsitively Sweet Bakery, started doing pop-up markets to sell the healthy dog treats she was making back in 2013. Today, she operates a brick-and-mortar store on Blanco Road, but still sells at various markets in the region, including Pearl’s Holiday Night Market and its Weekend Market.
Quiroga’s mother and business partner, Esther Foster, brings her 30 years of marketing experience to the business. She said Pearl’s vetting process for choosing vendors was tough — Quiroga applied for two years before she got in.
A well-curated market means vendors have been chosen carefully to appeal to that market’s customers without overlapping or duplicating, Foster said. But no matter how well-curated, if a market isn’t promoted robustly, it can still be a bust.
“People think that just because they have a large Instagram following that they can just post about the event and that will be enough,” said Karen Morris, who makes high-end candles, body oils and pressed flower items as Two Artsy. Artisans need to ask market hosts she said, “Are they actually paying for ads?”
Morris, who left a successful career in health care to launch her business, said in-person markets are a better fit for her than selling online, because the aroma of her products is a big part of the appeal.
She’s participating in Centro San Antonio’s Holidays on Houston popup shop, at 175 Houston Street, along with Perrito Lindo, which sells all things dog-related, and Dezynr, which offers colorful clay polymer earrings.
Morris said she was pleased that the city is encouraging local shopping, but has found that tourists who enter the shop are mainly looking for San Antonio-themed items.
‘A magical experience’
Erica Garcia operates as Pops of Whimsy, sewing fanciful dolls and patchwork dresses for kids and adults. Her items runs from $40 to $120. She also sells children’s books she writes. She’s selling at Pearl’s Holiday Night Market, which caps its December run on Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
She said she’s dreamed of having her own shop, but that with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old at home, “now is not the time to open a studio.” The flexibility of selling online and at pop-ups works with her schedule, and she said she’s able to make a living selling her wares.
“I love it when kids can pick out their own doll, it’s such a magical experience,” Garcia said, “so I try to do as many pop-ups as I can, especially during Christmas time.”
Like other artisans who spoke to the San Antonio Report, Garcia is part of maker communities who share information with one another about pop-ups and their operators.
Jessica Poole is a maker-turned-event coordinator who began making jewelry and designing T-shirts almost four years ago. The owner of a coffee shop where she was selling asked if she would take over the pop-up, and for a while she both hosted and sold.
But Poole found that she enjoyed the creativity of curating pop-ups, picking a theme, finding the right vendors for that theme and decorating the space accordingly. When the Barbie movie came out, for example, she hosted a pop-up filled with pink and Barbie-related items.
Poole said when someone approaches her about hosting a pop-up in their shop or bar, she first makes sure there isn’t a larger market happening at the same time. “I don’t want my vendors to struggle.”
This article has been updated to correctly reflect that Jessica Poole started her business almost four years ago, not 14.
