Sunday, 8 March 2015

Discovery Bay Craft Market

Rika has been trying develop her fashion business.   She has two challenges to solve : finding reliable companies to manufacture her garments at a reasonable cost and quality, and then finding ways to selling the garments.   


Working on the second problem, she decided to try having a stall at the Discovery Bay Craft Market.  This is held once a month on a Sunday from 10am -5pm at Discovery Buy main plaza.   We made it a family day-out and Hannah and I came along to help.


We left home around 8am to get to DB and set-up for the market opening at 10am.   For the fee, Rika got a stall with an awning, table and charges.   We brought our own hangers and Rika's merchandise in 2 large suitcases.


Rika was selling her own-design skirts, tops and trousers, which she initially put on hangers at the back of her stall, and hand-made earrings and hair-ties which she put on the table at the front.  She also sold furoshiki (printed fabric pieces) from Japan which she'd bought in bulk.     


The market was quite busy with a steady stream of passers-by.   I think she got good level of interest.

She had a lot of small sales of earrings and just a few large sales.  One mother bought several children's garments.   A student fell in love with the silk kimono jacket and after much agonizing about the price came back and bought it.  Her friend also ordered one.


But it was quite a long day for the shop-assistants.  At the end of the day Rika's sales were about HKD 3,000, and a further HKD 800 in orders.    Costs were HKD 1,000 for the stall and 500 for taxis.


This is Saito-sensei, our shiatsu massage guru who came to show support.


No comments: