Booth Etiquette

Eating in the booth.

Don't. Unless you can not avoid it. Do all eating and drinking and especially smoking out of site. As a matter of fact, don't smoke at all. I remember back to a time when we were showing some polar fleece hats that a relative had sewn, to a potential customer. He immediately could smell the smoke and was not interested. Besides, by now everyone knows smoking is really bad so quit. I smoked 3 packs a day and quit. If I can so can you.

Do not lick your fingers when counting money, lifting a piece of packing paper or opening a plastic bag. Keep a damp sponge in a small altoids tin and use that to moisten your fingers.

Housekeeping

Keep your booth clean and free from trash, empty cans, packing materials and anything that is not part of the setup or actually for sale. Have a litter bag ready for people who are constantly leaving bottles and cans lying around after they make a purchase. Paper towels and hand wipes are good for cleaning up spills. Keep a box of Kleenex handy for customers and hand sanitizer is always a good idea. Don't let your litter migrate to your neighbors booth and don't spill water from your canopy on your neighbors booth.

Keep your packing table and sales materials tidy and where they can be accesses in an instant. Nothing is worse than looking for a credit card receipt when the booth is full of people wanting to make a purchase.

Some artists put carpets down in the booth. It can be a nice touch but be sure the edges do not pose tripping hazards. The last thing anyone needs is a lawsuit from an injured customer.

Dress and attire

It goes with out saying to dress for the weather but what about the style? In most cases it is best to keep your cloths conservative, tasteful and comfortable. There will always the soap ladies or other vendors with the cool hippy dresses and long hair with braids and ribbons and that's fun. Or the fudge people with their granny hats and the blacksmith with his apron and others dressed in character. Otherwise it would probably be a good idea to just refrain from t-shirts or hats with slogans or images that promote a point of view. You might make a lot of friends who share your opinion but you would probably offend others and loose customers.

Try to limit the amount of aftershave, perfume or fragrance oils too. It might smell nice to you but odors can be offensive and in fact some people have allergies to the ingredients in fragrances, even pure essential oils. The idea is to keep from being offensive and eliminating some customers automatically. It is well known that smells trigger other subliminal messages so why take a chance on driving people away. Also it should go with out saying that you should be clean and well groomed. These are only suggestions, no one can tell you how to dress.

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