5. Garage Sale Feedback Staff Report
Staff Report
Date of Meeting: June 28, 2022
To: Tourism Committee
From: Brenda “Bee” Stignani, Office Assistant
Re: Garage Sale Feedback
1. Email message from Lynne Moratzka, 06/03/2022:
Hi Folks.... I visited 6 of the participants yesterday to hear/see how it was working.
All had homemade road signs and driveway signs.
Some signs had times/days listed
Balloons and flags for some with their signs
ALL reported Good attendance and sales for the first day!
Generally thought the date choice was good
All suggested better/wider/ earlier sign-up and ads, but thought for first time, good job.
Would be pleased if this was the "First Annual" sale.
Several had invited neighbors/friends to join together for more items.
The Church using their lower-level space was a great plan
Some confusion about the Saturday only choice at the Community Center
I'll be at the community center Saturday morning
Lynne
2. Survey Monkey – 5 responded
a. On Saturday, did you choose to use the Community Center site? 2-Y 3-N
b. Did you feel your sale was successful overall (all dates)? 3-Y 2-N
c. Was the date choice good? 4-Y 1-N
d. If not, when would be better?
i. It should have been a week later. You get more people when school is out.
e. Was the sign-up process easy? 5-Y
f. Did you think having the map was helpful? 5-Y
g. Any Additional comments?
i. We were hoping for more visitors to our neighborhood which would have
made set up and time spent guarding items a whole lot worthwhile. Seems
that most shoppers were specifically looking for items that we did not
have. We would most likely not do this again.
ii. I think we could have started earlier and that the sale needed to be
advertised better.
iii. maybe end on Saturday at noon? more publicity.
iv. More advertising. List in the Community Events section of the Messenger
and FL papers starting at least 2 weeks ahead of sale date. Post on
Craigslist. Get a large banner for the corner of Olinda and 97 with
changeable dates and wind holes for future use.
v. Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback. Overall, we considered
the event a success, however most of our volunteers felt that turnout was
considerably lower than expected, especially compared to earlier years
(prior to Covid we held at least one big sale every year). We heard from
other sales organizers that they too had lower turnout than expected -
perhaps another activity was going on this weekend that we did not know
about. Being next door to the community center we thought having a
sale at the same time would be beneficial to all parties, and Saturday's
attendance was the best of all 3 days so I would suggest that is a valid
statement. At the time we signed up we were unaware that a) the
community center sale was on Saturday only and b) it was outdoor only.
This may have put somewhat of a damper on Thursday and Friday traffic.
Unsure if offering indoor space would help, but I know for certain some of
our items would not have been for sale outdoors-only. Suggestion:
perhaps finding a food vendor for Saturday only would help increase
turnout?? (I know I would definitely buy food from them!) The map
function was helpful but only to those who knew how to get to it (like me);
several of our customers did not know there was a map, or knew about it
but could not access it - perhaps a knowledge gap. For certain, City of
Scandia cannot be faulted for giving it a good try - I / we are grateful for
the coordination and community-building effort! Thank you for helping
make it the success it was, and please keep us posted on how we can help
improve for 2023! -Brian Voss, Organist / Accompanist and Yard Sale
Organizer, Elim Lutheran Church