Host (00:05)
So yeah it's really cool that where they're from and what brought them here and yeah it's really cool anyways and saying that are you from Kelowna?

Sarah (00:13)
I am not. actually grew up in Regina, but I was born in England. So when I was about three and a half, my parents emigrated and they drove us across Canada. There used to be a business that some of the listeners might remember called the rent a wreck. You could just rent an old wrecker of a car for really cheap. And they drove all across Canada, handing out resumes. And then my dad was a journalist. So he actually got a job at the leader post, which was a newspaper in Regina. So we went from England to Regina, which is such a crazy shift.

Host (00:41)
Do you have memory of England? Like, that's young.

Sarah (00:44)
You know,

I have a few flash memories of like doing buttons up on my coat But we would go back every year and a half or so to visit my grandparents So my dad's of English descent so that they lived in the countryside He was an only child that was really really peaceful and then my mom's descent is from India So they had emigrated from Africa. That's where she was born, but they're originally from northern India So anyway, she has seven siblings. I have 25 cousins and it would be these

Crazy loud parties, multiple relatives that live on the same street. So we'd go from a week in London having these very large Indian parties to then going to the British countryside. So it was really neat to have that in my childhood and then we'd go back to Regina where we lived. Yeah.

Host (01:28)
wow. The

contrast of that must have been like so fun or interesting. Challenging too.

Sarah (01:34)
Yeah, challenging, interesting, and I think it really shaped my world perspective in a neat way. It makes me want to expose my kids to a lot of different people and cultures and ways of living.

Host (01:45)
so you're in Regina. at what point did you leave Regina?

Sarah (01:48)
I left Regina January 2004 it was. So I was doing ⁓ undergrad classes. I was kind of just taking arts classes with no direction. This was at U of R and I really wanted to switch directions and I tried to do an exchange in Australia and I was not accepted and I remember feeling kind of devastated like I just want to do something I had been to the Okanagan the summer before and not actually the Okanagan, the Kootenay area.

Host (01:58)
at U of R.

Sarah (02:14)
And I was like, wow, BC is so beautiful. I hadn't been as an adult and it blew my mind that there was rivers so accessible, like growing up in Regina, there's a manmade lake you can walk around or you can drive an hour and a half to like a duck-infested lake. At least that was my childhood experience. So I found Okanagan University College, which is now UBCO. And I thought, well, maybe I could get into something here. So I applied for the bachelor of social work program and I

was so shocked that I actually got in. I told all my friends and family, I'm moving to Kelowna and everybody thought I was absolutely crazy. I didn't know anyone here. Then I moved in the dead of winter in early January 2004.

Host (02:56)
2000, let me put, that was right after the Okanagan wildfire then. a few months after.

Sarah (03:00)
Yes, it was. remember hearing

it. Yeah. And everyone was saying, the whole city is going to be burnt down. Yeah. We have to remember too, like this is before social media. So everything that you hear, you don't really know what to believe because there's no actual way to see it online. But during my university classes, I used to shop at the different grocery stores. But what got me kind of into vintage was there's the Capri mall that has like the independence used to be called, maybe it's still

Host (03:28)
It

was called Extra Foods? still call it Extra Foods, even though that's long gone.

Sarah (03:29)
Thank

Yeah,

so extra food. I would shop there and then one day I was there and there was this like very elderly ladies. They look like they were almost a hundred years old. I'm not kidding, but they were all selling tables full of vintage jewelry and it was stuff I had never seen before. Like all these statement pieces matching sets probably from the eighties and seventies. And some of them were just so wild. Like they'd have giraffes on them or just large gold pieces, but the earrings would match and there'd be seashells and all kinds of things. So every

Host (04:02)
Was this like in the foyer? they had set up a table?

Sarah (04:05)
And so it was these sales still sometimes continue. It's it's the BC SPCA and I think they only run them maybe twice a year now But they're still going all these years later But I bought a bunch of statement pieces and then I would go back to the college and I'd get so many compliments in the hallways and from strangers and from friends and then I started bringing another friend with me and she would buy the sets and We would both get so many compliments and we're like, this is really cool. So

Host (04:30)
When you say statement piece, mean like like a.

Sarah (04:32)
brooch or something? there would be crazy brooches we'd buy like maybe a giant parrot or just like huge necklaces that would have like maybe it would be seashells or like a giant like a tiger and it would have the earrings that are tigers and they're matching. 1980s and 70s. I had never really been exposed to that in Regina and I do think back in 2004 for my generation I was in my early 20s vintage wasn't really seen in my circles as cool or even anything anyone was even seeking out.

He was born in end of 82.

Host (05:03)
End of, oh, in end of 82. Okay. Okay. Just to put it in like perspective. So I was born in 85. But yeah. So vintage to us is like the same. I feel like vintage to kids nowadays is.

Sarah (05:16)
You know, it's 90s. Yeah. Massive. So I kind of so I get my bachelor of social work and I and this is just so that was kind of a side note of my life at the time. And I just enjoyed wearing eclectic clothes, but I wasn't really a crazy thrifter or anything like that. I had a few pieces. So I get a bachelor of social work. My I meet my husband here. We get married. We actually moved to Costa Rica for six months.

Host (05:18)
shift. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Keep going.

wow, what took, like work or what?

Sarah (05:42)
No,

actually not at all. We just saved up money. And again, our family and friends said we are crazy and we probably were, but we thought it'd really neat to move there and maybe just surf every day and hang out. And that's exactly what we did. And looking back, we only had, I think our net worth was $7,000. It was literally enough to let you survive in Costa Rica for six months of time. But in the fifth month we were there, my husband had started up a marketing company and it really took off and he started doing really well where

We were literally down to our last $1,000 and then we were able to just continue living. So after Costa Rica, we were kind of drifting a bit and I kind of wanted to work in my field, but I didn't really know where or what. So we kind of kept traveling. We traveled all over Europe. We went to Asia for a while. We went back to Regina for six months and I worked for the government doing an eight to five job. And it was a call center for the transitional employment allowance. And I remember just thinking every day, this is so not.

me. I'm just so not a cubicle person. we decided, I think we were on some more travels and we decided we want to kind of root in Canada now. We're feeling kind of aimless after two or three years of doing this.

Host (06:52)
Your

husband from like you met him in Kelowna, but was he from is was he Canadian?

Sarah (06:55)
Yeah,

he's actually from Lloyd Minster. ⁓ yeah. So he had moved out here ⁓ to help his he was helping his brother renovate his house at the time. And he was also feeling a little aimless of what to do. ⁓ He had started a company making longboard skateboards. So when I met him, he was making his own longboards. He was selling them on eBay. And this is bit of a side note for him. I know it's okay. his kind of epiphany was he was doing market. He started doing marketing for longboard companies. And then one day he just thought,

Host (07:15)
No, I love it. ⁓

Sarah (07:25)
people who are buying these long boards, they don't really have any money and there's no way to continue just doing marketing in this field. So that's where he kind of expanded his marketing from there. But when I met him, we both kind of were doing odd jobs and had no idea.

Host (07:39)
Are these the long boards where like the cruiser types or the ones that you see them going down like Knox Mountain where they're actually slid-

Sarah (07:47)
Yeah, we actually used to go, we used to have friends that would do that Knox Mountain, I don't know, climb or the...

Host (07:51)
No,

it's the climb is the rally car your eight, but they do have one

Sarah (07:55)
You're Downhill,

not the downhill. So we used to go watch that. Some of our friends would be in it. And we, mean, back then we had no sense of safety. We used to bomb crazy hills together, never wore helmets, always in flip flops. And I can't believe that. I will never do that now. Like I'm a, I always have my helmet on. I bike a lot now, but it was a neat way to begin our story together because we both had no idea what we really wanted to do in life, but we had sort of little nudges here and there in our, of things that

peaked our interest. So where was it? Where can I go from that part of the story?

Host (08:26)
Yeah.

So you were in your call center at Regina and then you were thinking, ⁓ man, we need to.

Sarah (08:34)
We

like, what do we want to even do? So we ended up traveling a bit more and we couldn't sleep because of the time change. We were in Thailand. We remember this. ⁓ So we traveled all the south areas of Phuket and we started in Bangkok and then did all the islands. So we wake up because we can't sleep. It's like 3 a.m. We're like, let's just watch something on TV. So we put on the TV and we had just started talking before like what my husband had been to Victoria. I'd never been. said, what if we moved to Victoria? And I said, I don't know. I don't know anything about Victoria.

Host (08:42)
a per-

Sarah (09:03)
We turn on the TV at 3 a.m. in Thailand. ⁓ only show English is called Creepy Canada. And it was this ghost hunter guy in Victoria giving this ghost tour and showing like haunted. Like it was like a haunted show where you go down alleyways in Victoria and they hunt for ghosts. He's very famous and he's written some books. His name is John and I'll have to look up what his actual name is. So we thought that was a sign from the universe that we are meant to move to Victoria. So.

Host (09:20)
As you can see.

Sarah (09:30)
We moved to Victoria, it's January 2008 and we were young at the time but we didn't really realize that's when there was a big 2008 crash in the United States and we could see it in Canada where I was applying for all these social work jobs because I felt like that's what I should do. have a bachelor's.

Host (09:49)
You put all that time into it, right?

Sarah (09:51)
time

and back then like you'd go to this job center downtown and apply for jobs here nothing back or there was very few to apply for and it was really deflating and my husband's work continued to take off he was doing really really well with his marketing company and he had a lot of it bought us flexibility and time so eventually i did i worked for the government again and it just kind of stole my soul away really i just like i'm just not an eight to five cubicle person and they offered me

you call it? offered me a promotion. They offered me a promotion and I remember with like all my thoughts and guts I was like, no, I can't do this. I just can't do this. So I felt like I floundered for a bit, did some odd jobs and eventually I started a little tea company and I used to sell tea. There was like a tea festival and I did markets and I love being immersed in the market scene and I kind of noticed like what other people were selling and kind of noticing what

Host (10:41)
Okay.

Sarah (10:46)
better profit margins. were other things that weren't tea that takes a lot of time to make. And then I'm sure people who have tea companies know you have to refine your skill. But for me, I was like, I don't know if this is my thing. And once again, felt just kind of deflated because I've been floundering for so long. We're still in Victoria and yeah, my husband, he's very busy with his work. It's going great. And I'm just kind of at a loss of what I should do for work and if I should use this degree. So I don't even know how it really happened, but

Host (11:02)
And you're still in Victoria at this point.

Sarah (11:16)
I decided I had a large collection that was growing of vintage jewelry. There's a lot of thrift stores in Victoria, a lot more than here. People dress ⁓ way more eclectically as a whole. So I think that culture was kind of spilling out onto me. I looked at all my vintage jewelry one day and I was like, well, maybe I could try to sell it at like a flea market or something. So I get the six foot table, I go to this flea market and I think my stuff's amazing and the prices are so good, I'm gonna sell everything. And I sold one piece for $5.

And the clientele though, was all men, older men buying tools. Like there was very, there was one or two other vendors selling clothes or what I was selling, but it just wasn't the clientele. And I thought, where are all the people my age? Why aren't they here? Where are people in their twenties, thirties, forties? Like, why is this only men in their sixties and seventies? Mainly, I just didn't understand. So I went home and I thought, what have I put on my own show? And I advertise it towards people my age. And I thought, how should...

How do I even begin? So I start Googling shows and I decide, because I'm from Europe and I've spent time, a lot of time in England, I start looking up London flea markets, London vintage show, and I'm blown away by the content, by the advertising, by the beautiful clothes and jewelry that the entire show is. There's no offense to people who like buying tools, but there's no people just selling like old engine parts. Like it's just cool fashion based vintage. And I thought that...

is totally what I want to do. So I found this little church basement, I the rent was only $300 and I put this ad on Craigslist and at the time it was literally just myself and I write, I'm putting on a vintage show tables, I think they were like 50 to $70, which I didn't know if that was outlandish or good, I had no idea, but I wanted to just cover my costs and I knew if I could get 15 vendors, I would cover my costs, breakeven. So I just say, there's a few of us putting on a vintage show and right away I get a message and I get a payment.

Then people start back then people like to call you on the phone. So people would call me and I at least could say, yeah, there's four of us, but we need 15 of us. So it was this rainy, rainy October day. I didn't really know how to market it except make posters. I don't even think we had a Facebook page. So I put posters up all over downtown. It was October, 2009. How did you make it? So I found a stock photo of these beautiful girls online. And they just, they had like vintage clothes on and jewelry and they were just close together smiling. And I was like,

Host (13:32)
your posters.

Sarah (13:42)
I think that encapsulates what the clientele is, but still wondering like, is anyone going to come to this? I don't know. the day before the show, Victoria used to have some amazing auctions. think Lund's auction is still going and there used to be Kilshaws if anyone spent time down there. So I got to know the auctioneers really well at Kilshaws. I used to buy jewelry lots from there all the time. And one day I was at Lund's auction and I ran into a guy who had stopped by the flea market, the one show I did. said, I recognize you. said,

I'm doing a show tomorrow and I said, I actually have one spot left. And he said, okay, great. I'll, I'll do your show. And he ended up being one of my longest time vendors. So the day of the show, it's torrentially raining. I don't really know what I'm doing because I've never really put on a show. have tables. I tried to make myself look organized and my, some of my vendors were saying like, is anyone even going to come to this? And I said, I, hope so. But it was like a downpour. couldn't believe. So we opened the doors at 10 and the crowds were unbelievable. It's small church basement. ⁓

hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people then local news comes and I'm just floored like by the turnout of the show and it ends up on the news that night and I keep getting calls to do more shows and I thought okay I feel like I've hit something here that people want that isn't what they were getting before. So I wasn't sure when to put on the next show I think I waited till 2010 but I decided to do five shows like every other month.

And then I started charging admission just so could make a little bit of money from it and also spend more on advertising and entertainment. And it kind of just grew from there.

Host (15:15)
Wow, that is so cool.

Sarah (15:18)
thank you. after about three years of doing these shows every other month, I tried to switch the locations a bit too, because you think that the feedback I would get, think customers, it's psychological. They appreciate seeing the same vendors in the same place, but also locations get boring and you don't want your show. I never want my show to feel boring to people like, it's the same thing, right? Every time. And the vendors generally bring a lot of different things, but I started switching up the locations to see.

what would happen and I think that was really neat. we would often piggyback traffic off Moss Street Market. If anyone's been to Victoria, that's one of the main big farmers markets. So our event was right beside that in this United Church Hall. They had two halls, but then we started getting complaints from so many neighbors in the city because there was no parking and it's just overwhelming the neighborhood when we have these shows. that's always been a tough thing for me of having my shows in a vibrant, eclectic neighborhood.

because there's something about that ambience, that untangible, that you don't get when you go, in my opinion, you don't get when you just go to some large hall with a giant parking lot. You get ease of parking, but there's just this untangible thing that is missing. the feel of it. It's the feel of it. So that's always been a struggle for me of putting markets on in a really neat neighborhood, regardless of what the parking situation is. But about 20,

in Victoria, decided to do a really big show behind the Empress Hotel that anyone who's gone to Victoria's had a picture in front of that Empress Hotel. There is Crystal Garden behind it and Crystal Garden used to be, I think it was an animal, like a butterfly garden back in the 80s or 90s. I think I went there as a child and have like a flash memory of it. It used to be a swimming pool in like the 1930s, but it's a gorgeous, gorgeous venue, absolutely massive. I thought,

what if I rented this out and did a vintage expo? That would just be really cool. I could have way more vendors and I was a little in over my head, but I decided to just go all in. So I rented Crystal Garden. The very first show we had 80 vendors and we had live, we had fashion shows with models that would wear fashions from the 1880s all the way up till the 1990s, just casing each era. had...

We had furniture demos for people wanting to refurbish their furniture. think that was really big about 12 years ago was like the shabby chic furniture and how to restyle your furniture. So we would do demos. We had a whole stage area that was busy all day long, plus these 80 vendors, plus a bar. And we would have a DJ spinning vinyl and it was so fun. It was a cool event. I basically drew give or take around 3000 people. We would do a Friday night all day Saturday and

I absolutely loved running the show plus my smaller shows, but I ended up having my first child, I think in 2015. So I think that I'd done a couple expos and then I had my next kid in 2017 and I was feeling a little bit burnt out. I think I was just in a different direction. I guess anyone who knows when if you have young kids, you kind of just hone in and are like, I can't even look at these vintage ornaments right now. All I can do is like,

change diapers and try to get sleep. And I can't even think about the vintage. And I was feeling a bit torn the last year I was running the shows that my passion had really wained away from the shows and what I wanted them to be. So I actually ended up selling the business. I sold the vintage business in 2017 and I sold it to a dear friend of mine and she ran it for a few wonderful, wonderful years. And then COVID hit. And I think it kind of just dissipated from there.

During that time, I moved back to Kelowna with my husband and my really young kids. They were five weeks and two years old at the time.

Host (19:01)
you

That's a big move with a five-

Sarah (19:06)
It I would not recommend that at all. from living in such an eclectic town, like we lived in Vic West, we could walk everywhere, we were so involved in the arts community, we moved to Wildon. I mean, people love Wildon. Wildon is a great place full of nature, but to me, it was a bigger culture shock than when I visited India. It honestly was, I just felt like, wow, this is a really beautiful place, but people keep to themselves. It's silent and it's very nature-filled.

I thought by moving there I would just embody that and become that.

Host (19:38)
Take some of your ⁓ English part of you.

Sarah (19:40)
Yeah, that's right. Take my English countryside part of me. And in a way I did. I loved walking around with this beautiful trails where we lived, but I missed Victoria so much. I missed the arts community so much. And I felt like I didn't really know who I was anymore. Not doing the shows and not dressing vintage and honestly feeling like we moved in the dead of winter here and it was a rough winter of just blizzards every day. And I remember just being like, I have nowhere to go and I have nothing to do. And I'm home with these young, beautiful children that are

all consuming, I was like, this, just, I just have no joy to Viva right now. I don't know even where to get that from. I felt kind of just stuck in the cycle for over a year. And a good friend of mine said, well, why don't you try to like make jewelry? You're good at making things. Why don't you try to get involved in the local farmer's market? And at least you would be surrounded by that artsy scene again. So actually that's exactly what I did. I ended up making clay earrings, which was really fun. I made clay earrings.

Host (20:36)
Sorry to interject, how did you... there's such a spectrum of things you could make. How did you decide on clay earrings? everything else you could.

Sarah (20:46)
You know, that is a great question. don't even know how I, you know what it was? I had bought this really cool pair of earrings when we were in France a few years earlier. And I remember just being like, how did this lady make these earrings? They're the coolest earrings I ever have bought. And I get tons of compliments on them. And I tried to remake what this person had made. I was never able to do it. And I also found clay can be a bit brittle to work with. So I started buying metal bezels that would kind of hold the clay.

So it was mainly stud earrings ⁓ and then drop earrings that I went after. And then I thought, I sort of looked online. went on like TikTok, YouTube and sort of looked at some trends and thought, I'll just give this a go and see. And maybe I'll make it. I also wanted to make a little bit of money and I thought maybe I could make a little bit of money and just do this. So that taught me a lot during the season. I learned what people want is often not what we think. Like what I thought would become my best sellers completely wasn't. was actually,

my large statement items I thought would be my best sellers, but it was my smallest stud earrings. So I learned a lot. It was really cool. But the next year COVID hits, cause I was going to continue it and maybe I wanted to grow the business and actually get more into fine sterling silver cause I was using stainless steel and maybe even gold. But then COVID hits and it's impossible to get supplies. Can't get supplies anywhere. Talk to suppliers that were overseas locally. just, everything was at a standstill. So I, again, once again, I was like, okay,

Host (22:12)
And had you finally got a little bit of your passion, your flare back?

Sarah (22:17)
I

a hugely, hugely, I did so many markets. felt alive again, felt like I was, yes, feeling alive and just that feeling where you're like, this is what I'm meant to do. The energy. The energy and that really, as an artistic person, that just keeps me going. So then COVID hits and again, I'm like, what are we all doing? We don't even really know. And then Poshmark was popping up as ads on my phone and that's where you can resell.

doesn't have to be vintage, you can, still a site you can use today, an app, you can resell clothes, jewelry, vintage. You can do even housewares, shoes, whatever. And I thought, well, why don't I try sell some of the stuff I already have on Poshmark? I wasn't collecting to do shows. I actually felt very overdoing vintage shows at the time. So I start listing a few things and I remember my first sale was a wallet. I think I got it for like a couple bucks and I sold it for

for $20 and after all said and done, I probably made 13 bucks, but I was like, oh my gosh, I sold something so exciting. But from there, I started sort of learning what people would buy and my mom would sell with me and we started selling tons and tons of items like clothes, jewelry. We'd sort of look at what was trending and that really got me through COVID. It was an amazing part-time income and I still use the site to a small amount today. But a couple years ago, I was like kind of having

the itch to put on a show here. There's, is a really cool show that happens at the end of September at the Parkinson rec center, the Okanagan vintage fair. And the lady who puts it on is wonderful. She lives in Vancouver and she actually used to be one of my vendors on the Island, which is so neat. So she would travel to my shows and she started the shows here probably 10, 12 years ago. Now she does a fabulous job and I loved her shows, but I was like, kind of want to, they're only in September and April or May. I thought,

What about the other months? Like I love doing a fall show in October. So I remember one day after really thinking about it, I, I was driving downtown and I was thinking, where could I go and ask like, what would be a good Kelowna venue? Not really knowing what people here think is hip or where people really go. I'd only been here a few years. So I drove by this Ukrainian Catholic church, which is on Coronation Avenue, not far from Railside Brewing. That's exactly right. And it was pouring rain and all windy and I.

Host (24:33)
Yeah, Coronation and Gordon.

Sarah (24:38)
I slowed down in front of it and there's like a couple cars out front. was a weekday and I was like, no, this is dumb. And I kept driving and then I did this big U-turn and actually went back. like, just go in, just go talk and see, just see what happens. So I went in and I talked to the lady. She was so nice and she said we could give you a great deal on the haul if you want to do a show. So I actually planned the show knowing only myself and my mom would be a vendor and one friend of mine. That's two. I don't know anyone in the vintage scene. I'm completely unconnected.

But the hall rate was reasonable. So I said, sure, let's do this. So I put it on, I think I, ⁓ I have a corner events Instagram. I actually need a little piece of my story. In 2019, I ran a craft show and it was called Craft on the Corner and I ran it at, thank you. And from there I was like, maybe I'll call this corner, I'll call this corner events. So that's how I had the Instagram, but it had been dead for a couple of years. So I ran a little show at the United Church by Safeway.

Host (25:21)
I'm sick of you.

Sarah (25:34)
We had a great turnout and then that was a September in December. I actually ran a show at the Laurel Packageddon house called the Winter Moon Craft Market, I think it was called. And we had a great turnout there too. It was a wonderful show and that was right before COVID December 19. So I kind of had just, and I love arts and crafts. I really do, but I still knew that my ultimate passion was vintage. So anyway, I had my Instagram and it hadn't been used for like,

four years, but I start posting on there and hashtagging that I'm doing the show and we need vendors. And right away I started getting messages and people e-transferring me to do a vintage show here. So that this little Catholic church. And before I knew it, we were sold out of space and I only had, I think a month lead up to the show, which isn't very much time. If you want to put in an event, a month is not a lot of time to get all your vendors, get your marketing message right and just do it. And so I, I did, I have,

Host (26:27)
Yeah, I can.

Sarah (26:30)
pulled it off, got all our vendors and we had a crazy turnout. Like the hall did not feel big enough for the amount of people that came through. I think we had over 700 and that's not a very big hall for 700 people. No, this is the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Oh, Ukrainian. Yeah. And they were wonderful. They sold pro-gays. It was really fun. So we decided to do it again. And I felt really bad because I booked it on a Saturday.

Host (26:41)
That you're the Lord you're talking about

Sarah (26:57)
It was Saturday, November 11th, and I didn't realize that that is literally Remembrance Day. And I'd already signed this contract and I would never ever do a show on Remembrance Day, but I didn't know. So we decided to roll with it. I sold out of vendor space right away, but we donated a partial proceeds to the Legion. Thank you. The Legion. I toured there. I told them what we were doing and they were actually super happy that we were doing the show. They didn't mind it was Remembrance Day. We did a moment of silence in the show when we collected money and ⁓

had poppies available for people. So we rolled with it and again had a huge turnout at that show and they wanted us to continue doing shows there, but it was just too small and I had way too many vendors that wanted to get in and it's great problem to have. And actually that's been one of my challenges is wondering like, do I take this to another larger level here? But where do you take it to a larger level that is bigger than the Laurel packing house where you don't lose the style and feel.

Host (27:38)
It's a good problem to have, ⁓

ambiance of

Sarah (27:53)
The

ambience, I'm always open anyone. can message me on corner events, Kelowna. If you have a venue that has a larger space than Laurel Packinghouse, that's... You know, if I eyeballed it, I want to say 3000, but maybe it's 4000s. Maybe I'm off a little bit. It's a lovely size. I just feel that I love it so much doing the shows there, but I still sell out of all vendor space. I feel like we have no room to do...

Host (28:02)
Square Feet's packing house do you think?

Sarah (28:20)
Like, I'd love to have a bar where people could walk around with drinks, like whether it's alcoholic or not. But I feel like there's not even really room for that in that.

Host (28:27)
Yeah, it is tight once you get all the tables and more space.

Sarah (28:31)
But it's a beautiful space. I knew I had done a show at the packing house in 2019. So I contacted them. Obviously, another challenge of running markets is you pay a lot more money the larger you get in your venue. But again, I was like, I still think it's worth it. I think it's worth it. And people will be willing to pay $5 at the door to come in when it's a venue they want to go to and people want to go to the

Host (28:55)
cool yeah that's the thing like the sense of place when you're in there yeah like five dollars and you get to be in that atmosphere with all the bricks free everything yeah that's not five bucks isn't that bad right

Sarah (29:03)
Yeah, the history.

For me too, as running the shows, I need to make it profitable to do as a part-time job. So I feel like those shows kind of carry me through when I can charge at the door. And I always have a charity aspect.

We have been working with the Kelowna Share Society. And so that actually one day, my mom was in there shopping, cause she sells with me, she sells vintage jewelry and she, I was doing the show. My mom said, you guys should have a table. And I'm a little bit reserved and shy. And I, wouldn't have just asked a thrift store to, if they want to have a table, I'd probably think just here's another crazy customer, but they actually were really, it was just the manager. said, well, we'd love to be involved. And so ever since then, I give a portion of our door proceeds to them and they support.

adults in our community that have all kinds of intellectual disabilities or issues getting back to work and getting them back on their feet with employment. So they have a large space that we give them on the stage at the Laurel Packing House and they save a lot of incredible vintage items that they sell at lower prices at my show that they have not been on the floor before. And then we give them a portion of door proceeds. ⁓ last December at our November show, I sponsored two families.

Instead of donating right to the store, was through their hamper program. And then I got to deliver, shop and deliver hampers door to door for a few families. So I love involving ⁓ different aspects of community in my show. And I think that's kind of been a recipe for success that I don't see in all shows, but I think it's important to have different elements going at all times. So you have your vendors, what businesses do you have? What charities do you have? ⁓

Can you like, have a DJ who comes, but I think everyone different that you can bring to the show brings their own marketing background as well. And another thing I really try to do, I'm, 42 years old, but I started, probably started these in my late twenties, but I love having all ages of vendors. And I do see shows in town that only have, vendors of a certain demographic, whether it's like early twenties or late sixties. But I think there's some magic when you involve vendors of all ages, my.

packing house show we have vendors as young as 18 and then as old as 80. And I just think there's something so great about having like multi-generations, generational fun together. And when people come out with their family and friends and you hear the comments of, Auntie Sue had that exact picture in her living room or, my gosh, my grandma had that bowl, except it was in blue. I just love hearing the stories and I think it just connects us all.

Host (31:36)
Yeah. this is so cool. And so, ⁓ man, I was wondering, I had a question earlier, but I didn't want to interject. What was it?

⁓ so you have these, you must be pretty good at marketing then, hey? Or are you tapping into your husband's?

Sarah (31:51)
You know what? I'm glad you mentioned that. Cause I did want to go back into that when I first put the shows on in Kelowna, people here seemed like floored of like, how did you, how did you do that? It was so smooth. And I said, it's because I did this for 10 years in Victoria and I learned so much along the way and I'm still evolving. But yes, my husband really helped in the early days sort of figure out the essence of the marketing of who am I trying to advertise this to? Is this something I would even want to attend and really trying to get that marketing clear message of

what is this and why would I want to attend and trying to find that magic. So when I create my posters, I often use Canva now, but I always, I want it to appeal to all ages. I want it to look friendly and then kind of have a stylish edgy look that people want to go and just find something unique. But he really helped me in my early days with the marketing and Facebook ads to my husband's marketing. also helped me sort of.

tier the Facebook ads to the right demographic and check on the ads to make sure we are converting people to ⁓ likes and follows on the event is really important. Getting people interested in the events because the more people interested people and you can say Facebook is kind of dead, but I think for Facebook events, it's still an incredible tool, marketing tool. Instagram reels as well have been big. And so that was a big shift for me when I lived in Victoria and did shows. don't even think

Nobody did reels. Reels, don't think were invented or at least I'd never heard of them. So that was a very intimidating to come here and think, how do even make a reel? But I think I've learned some content is better than no content. So even if I put something out in a reel and I don't think it's that great, they usually get over a thousand views. And I know that that is tapping into the right demographic and crowd to come to the show.

Host (33:39)
That's an... The real is the video one, right? Or is that the picture one that goes...

Sarah (33:43)
So

you can use pictures as well and you can make that into real and add music ⁓ or you can add a little bit of video. ⁓ So those have been huge to advertise the shows. But I'm always thinking like wherever I do the show of would people want to attend, what would draw them in? If I had nothing to do with this event, would I even want to go? So I'm always trying to look at it from the other perspective. And how can I get all ages to come? Because I think if people only my age come, you're losing all these other demographics or people only Gen Z's coming.

you're losing that vibrant crowd in their 40s to 60s who purchase all kinds of items as well. And it's really great. It's neat seeing the younger generation buy things from the older vendors and vice versa. It's really cool. One of the biggest shifts I've seen in Victoria was people, when I did the shows there, it was very 1940s to 60s themed.

even the jewelry we sold is a lot more older, more antique. I'd have things in the, even the 18 and 1900s. And then fast forward six years, we move here and even in Victoria now, the shift is really nineties. That's just where it is for better or worse. It's just, that's what people overall really want for clothing anyway. So we find a lot of our vendors sell like nineties clothes. However, my upcoming show at Railside, I definitely have vendors with seventies and sixties.

clothing as well. And my mom and I have been buying and selling jewelry for years together. So we sell jewelry from all kinds of eras, from antique all the way up to fairly modern. and we kind of know now what people are after, although there's always the outliers. So we like to have a huge selection of, of different, of different things.

Host (35:25)
Can you dive into how you go about purchasing all of your things?

Sarah (35:31)
Yeah, so I started off doing buying from auctions in Victoria. I've actually never bought from the Kelowna auction. a live auction? Yeah, they used to be live. I think Lund still does a live auction. yeah, it was really fun. would just say like, here we have a box of costume jewelry. looks like there's maybe 40 pieces. fun. Looks like it's from the 60s or 70s. We're not really sure. Starting the bid at $10 and maybe. So I think if people.

Host (35:52)
are they getting these from?

Sarah (35:55)
are either older and donate it or potentially if it's an estate sale and the family has sold it for them. I think that's where it all comes from. And you can get some amazing things and I guess I should check out the Kelowna auction. There's probably great stuff, but in Kelowna, I mainly buy, I buy lots online. So sometimes on marketplace or even off eBay or Poshmark if the price and shipping is right. And I'm an avid thrifter. ⁓ so thank you. A lot is like a box or like a.

Host (36:18)
What's a lot?

Sarah (36:23)
like 25 pieces, like a whole bunch at once. Um, cause then if you buy, if you buy a lot and you get 40 pieces in it and maybe, maybe 20 of them are good, I'll donate the rest and then those 20 pieces I will list to sell. And if I get my lot for 80 bucks and every piece ends up that I keep ends up costing me three to $8 and I can resell it for give or take 20 to 50, depending on the quality, it kind of works itself out.

Host (36:50)
So when it's a lot, do you know what's in the lot or?

Sarah (36:52)
Is

it a surprise? will only buy ones where I can see the pictures of them because I'll only buy if I can get a few good things. Yeah. And even at the local thrift stores, sometimes you can buy like baggies full of jewelry. And sometimes that's good way. mean, for myself, I'll only buy them if I can look, if I can look from the outside and see at least two or three pieces that I think would be desirable that would cover the costs. Then I'll buy them. I, I'll never just buy like a blind bag, but for jewelry, I see trends of

Host (37:00)
You know there's something in there.

Sarah (37:22)
Some things are classic people always want like hoop earrings, simple studs, lockets, cameos, animal jewelry, anything like that. Sterling Silver or anything unusual seems to be what I find I resell really well.

Host (37:37)
Yeah, do you purposely go on road trips to go thrifting to different antique stores?

Sarah (37:43)
So I've never purposely planned a trip, but I go to Victoria a lot. I still have some of my best friends there. One of my closest friends, I met her cause she was a customer at my show and we became really good friends and had our first born kids at the same time. So I, for example, I visited her in the winter and she loves to thrift. So we went thrifting and I covered the costs of my entire trip by thrifting. And there was a few key pieces I, that I bought that I resold when I got home and that covered the cost. I kind of have a fun goal in my head.

to my costs to Victoria with reselling when I get home the things I buy.

Host (38:16)
Yeah, so and then My other question is where do you store this and how do you keep it like inventoried or organized?

Sarah (38:23)
man, I wish my husband was here. He would just like shake his head right now. We recently moved in our old place. I actually had an entire room and it would get disorganized because people are like buying things on Poshmark and then I'm doing a show and then there's another show coming up and so I'm always repricing things and then I actually supply to stores, Downtown Colonna now, Lost Together and Casa Medello Studio so I can sign with them.

Host (38:27)
So...

Sarah (38:52)
And it's been an amazing partnerships. And I feel like I've, I've been able to tailor it to what I think people are wanting and buying in those particular genres of stores. So basically there's a lot going on and I don't have a great system. I wish I could say I did what one thing I've done. We just moved. So I have a large area in the back of a garage is I've personally gotten away from clothing because it takes up a ton of room. I'll still keep maybe five or six things for the shows. There's certain things that I always sell.

denim jackets, easy to sell, really cool vintage t-shirts, easy to sell. But anything else, I decided to just consign and not store it. So if you take it to a store, a lot of them will do, let's say like a 40, 60 split. they will price it for you and then they will keep 60 % and you'll get 40%. So if you can keep your costs really low, for example, a lot of the things I'm taking in, I've purchased for one to...

Host (39:30)
What does consignment mean?

Sarah (39:49)
one to $5, one to $10, let's say. if they resell something for 110, then I'm still getting 30 or $40. And also I'm not doing the work of being there all the time. and they're storing it for you. Another great thing that anyone can do is take, take your items to Plato's closet. So often if my items are not desirable, who don't sell at the downtown stores, I'll just take them to Plato's closet and a big bag. I'll often get like 40.

Host (40:01)
and they're storing it for you.

Sarah (40:18)
to $60 depending on the quality of it. that's, if people don't know what Plato's closet is, opened last year. It's on Barron road and it's sort of, it's not consignment. They buy outright and it's all trendy clothes aimed at more the 20 somethings crowd, but it's all very trendy clothes, but you could always take your items there as another good avenue.

Host (40:40)
do you agree upon the price before you give the items to them to consign it? Like what if they sell it for a price that's too low?

Sarah (40:47)
Right. think I've never brought in anything high because I've been doing this so long. I've never brought them something where I know I won't make money. But yeah, I think otherwise you could say like these, this is my coach purse. need $50. And there's also a lot of other consignment stores in town. think people could check out. I think there's most wanted resale, most wanted luxury maybe in the mission. might've butchered the name of that a little bit, but

Host (40:58)
minimal amount.

Sarah (41:14)
It's fun and it's kind of addictive, ⁓ buying like jewelry and, garage sales. That's another amazing place where I get a lot of my great stuff, ⁓ is garage sales because you get things, you get little knickknacks and household ornaments that you would never see or find anywhere else at incredible prices, vintage clothes and jewelry. Again, I'm garage sales. I've gotten some of my best deals where you're paying minimum 50 cents. got a, an original 1984.

⁓ tour shirts of Willie Nelson a few months ago for 50 cents. was brand new. I've been wearing it and it's, like authenticated it online. I'm like, people sell these for hundreds of dollars, but it fits too good so I can't sell it.

Host (41:55)
So

cool. You must really look forward to Saturdays then, Yeah. That's pretty cool.

Sarah (42:02)
great stuff that you can find if you're willing to look. I do think though, it all took me, it was all an evolving process. I remember one of the first shows we did in Victoria. I didn't even think about signage is the thing when you start out, learn as you go. So the show started, we didn't have a sign, but we had some black spray paint. So we like spray painted like vintage show on this piece of cardboard and it looked horrible. And one of my friends who I also met through the vintage shows, she had a blog and she covered.

my event and she said everything was wonderful except the sign outside and I was like that is so so so funny.

Host (42:39)
have gone one of two ways like really cool and you know or not good yeah yeah i cut you off there sorry

Sarah (42:46)
no, that's okay. I feel like I'm a talking train. Okay.

Host (42:50)
This

is it's all about. No, it's all about you. This is great.

Sarah (42:53)
Another thing that I do, I want to put on a great show. I want to make money and I want the vendors to do well. So I kind of have a formula for putting on my shows. first of all, if I, before I even rent a venue, I think how much do I hope to make from this event, whatever it is, let's say it's for an indoor show, let's say it's minimum of $3,000 for all the work after all is said and done. So I'll kind of get my, I'll get the cost that I have to pay.

I'll figure out my insurance, I'll figure out how much is a DJ, how much is staff to work the door. And then you got to print posters and you need to pay for Facebook ads. So all that added up is let's say that's $2,300. Then I do the math of how many vendors can I fit and how much can they each pay me? That's covering all of that. So when the door is open, if I'm charging money, I'm at zero. I don't want to be in the red and then my profits are coming in from there. ⁓

Some of the funny things we've done over the years to cut costs, mainly in Victoria, but after there would be so many local elections because there's so many different municipalities of Victoria. So when those were ended, like they just recycle those signs or people would give them to us or I would dig them out late at night and we would cover up all these old signs. Cause I didn't want to spend $30 on a lawn sign and they're expensive. Yeah, there's pretty much 30 bucks for a two pack even on Amazon. Or even if you order an advanced or spending, if you want.

Host (44:07)
Is that how much they're?

Sarah (44:14)
eight signs, you're easily going to spend ⁓ way over a hundred dollars and printing is a lot of money. So I'm, I'm always thinking of like, how can I make the most inexpensive advertising? Like where can I cut money to still make an incredible show, but not overspend? And I think a lot of people who put shows on overspend and they it's easy to do, but I've really tried to not overspend, but also to me, marketing is the biggest.

is the biggest thing that I can spend my money on because I want my vendors to do well and I want them to come back. so far I have a never ending wait list of vendors and it's a wonderful problem to have. yeah, I think that's my challenge right now is what would be a bigger venue where I don't lose the ambiance or does that just not exist? I'm not really sure.

Host (45:00)
Yeah, would you ever travel to a different city to put it on? If you found a place that...

Sarah (45:05)
yeah, you

know, I haven't thought of that. also, I don't really know any other cities well enough now. And I know like Victoria's kind of got its own shows going on, so I wouldn't want to impede on the market there. That's not a bad idea. think then by the- Penticton would be neat.

Host (45:18)
it. or burn

it. don't know if yeah, it's a good idea. if there's that if you find that space that feels good. Do you do outdoors? You do outdoors shirts too right?

Sarah (45:26)
Right?

Actually, so rails,

rail side. So we lived in old Glenmore for a while. And when rail side first opened, I thought like, what an incredible addition to the neighborhood. And from my house, was a four minute bike rip down Clifton. And, my brother and sister-in-law would meet us there all the time from, they live in Rutland. It's a 20 minute bike ride for them. And just, we would go constantly. have lots of friends that we'd meet there on any day of the week and just go have a pint or.

They have a lot of good non-alcoholic selections. I sometimes just have a non-alcoholic drink and just catch up with friends. And I love the feel of that pub because going back to my roots, it feels British when you're outside on the patio, there's no screens. And I love that like a British pub, a classic British pub. There's not a bunch of screens in your face and like music where you can't hear each other talk. And it really seems like an incredible community hub that they've created. So this winter I was there and the event organizer, David, came up to me. think I was at...

It was Music Bingo and he said, I've heard that you do these vintage shows, because I had gotten to know a few of the bartenders and they would come to all of my shows and tell me how much fun they had and show us what they bought. And he said, would you ever want to run a show with us? I said, I've never thought of that, but let's just do it. Why not? And I think that was February or March. So I kind of brainstormed around it for a while. I was a bit nervous because Railside is incredible. However,

Parking is extremely limited and it's right on the rail trail. So biking's encouraged. But I thought, why don't we do this during bike to work week? Because we could play upon the theme that people are already biking and then I guess they won't get as frustrated with the parking situation. So we did, we called it Bike to Vintage Market and we had about 15 vendors and we ran it on a Wednesday night from five till nine. And this is June is also a great month because the sun is going down so much. Which is awesome. And again, I sold that of

Host (47:20)
Yeah, yeah.

Sarah (47:23)
vendor space really fast and the show started and within five minutes there was droves and droves of people, like hundreds and hundreds of people came. It was a free show. People didn't have to pay admission, but they could stay for a pint. They could grab something from the food truck and it was an absolute blast. So a few weeks after the show, David had approached me and said, asked if we could do it again. And I said, absolutely. Like what a wonderful community collaboration. It's just been great to also.

piggyback off each other's traffic. Like they have their own following, I have my own following and we collaborate on the event on social media so we can kind of work with each other's followings, which is really, really cool. So this event coming up is Sunday, September 14th from noon to 6 p.m. And this time we have 20 vendors, so we've increased it. And Rocket Subs, Craft 42 Roasters, Barbecue Boss Food Truck and Railside will all be open, which they weren't.

for the last one, was just two of those businesses. to have them all open on a Sunday, I think it's going to be incredible. ⁓ I think it's going to be really, really great. And I feel like those shows are such, it just fills me with so much passion. I just love bringing people together and all ages again, come. And I just love that. I always hope that all ages from little, my kids actually sell lemonade and water at the show. ⁓ But I love having little littles to everything in between all generations up into the seventies and eighties are coming. I'm.

Host (48:27)
awesome.

Sarah (48:50)
Really happy to see that.

Host (48:51)
Yeah, in that little corner there all of those business owners are so supportive of each other and everyone and it gets it's really neat how they all come out like you said opening when they're not usually open and it just adds to the ambience when it's all you know happening and

Sarah (49:08)
It really does. And I remember when I listened to your podcast with Railside Brewing, I remember him saying ⁓ one of their biggest surprises was that so many people from the neighborhood would come and say, well, I just live a few minutes away. Like that wasn't in his marketing plan. And that's really neat too, because every time I do a show in a different location, you are honing in on a different demographic, a slightly different demographic, or people that maybe wouldn't have attended a show in a different location for different reasons. So.

Host (49:36)
Yeah, that's looking forward, do you see?

Sarah (49:40)
Like after the rail site?

Host (49:42)
next year in the winter time or

Sarah (49:44)
I would love to just continue. think I would like to diversify a little bit and continue doing the show. So at the Laurel packing house so far, we're trying to continue. We will have one Sunday, November 23rd at the Laurel packing house. So we have that one. I usually do March and June there. ⁓ and those are really fun, but I'd like to maybe do more sip nights at pubs, different pubs around. I've been asked from a few other, ⁓ from a winery in another pub.

Host (50:09)
You must have to, like so many of the vendors, we're such a cashless society now, you must have to think about wi-fi and stuff so that people can make their purchases.

Sarah (50:18)
You know what, even though I haven't overly thought of it, I think a lot of people run their phones on 5G because rail side, I don't think the wifi is even reaching. use data. Yeah, so they can use data, but you're right. I always encourage vendors. Almost all of them will take e-transfer. If not, a lot of them have the square reader to take credit cards. But I would say we probably get 50 at my own booth. I'd say half the people still paying cash. Yeah, it is really cool. Yeah. Yeah. It shows you cash is still king.

Host (50:42)
that's cool to see.

Sarah (50:47)
any of my avid thrifter friends, like I always have cash on me in case I run into a garage sale, I must have cash. Like you don't want to get ever not.

but I think running events is such a great thing. And I love when I see other people in the community running events of all different kinds, because it, takes a lot of courage to kind of get this idea, put it on and hope people are going to be receptive or even come to your event. So I think of anybody out there listening has an idea, whether it's my friend yesterday told me she's doing, ⁓

talent show in her neighborhood on her block and I thought that is so cool. I think any type of event is always worth putting on and doing and even if you get a small turnout you'll learn so much and you'll decide if you want to do it again or you'll get a great turnout. It's just about bringing people together and connecting in real spaces beyond our phones and computers.

Host (51:36)
Yeah, no, I love this so much. I had another idea too, well ⁓ not idea, but thought, because how you've set yourself up, you're really adaptable to changing trends and stuff like that. And we were at a local market we had walked down to, and there was a vendor there who was saying, know, my stuff sells really well.

at other places that they go to. in Kelowna, he can't sell what he was trying to sell. And I thought to myself, and what he was trying to sell was something that was stunningly beautiful, would take lots of time, but in selling one, they last a lifetime. So you're never going to come back and get another one because you don't need two of these items in what you were selling. And I thought to myself,

There already is a vendor to that has been at the farmers market in Kelowna selling the same product for many years. So I thought, I think it's because the market here is probably saturated with that item. Like everybody who wants one has already bought one and you don't need another one. And then he's coming to the market, trying to sell the same thing and, or to that particular event and just not selling anything. And I thought, ⁓ I didn't say anything, but I, that did.

occurred to me that day, it was just a few weeks ago, that picking your location and what you're selling is a tricky little balance.

Sarah (53:00)
it absolutely is. I've, in the past I used to do Christmas markets. A lot of the elementary schools will have them. There's so many as we all being in Kelowna at Christmas. So lots of elementary schools will have craft shows and my mom's tried to sell in a few and we will barely sell anything. Cause again, it's just not the right demographic or we've done, yeah, different small markets in town that are just, I don't want to name any names of the markets, but they're, just not our scene. And we just don't really sell much. And I've had

Most of my vendors tell me they do really well at my show, but there's been a few that over the years that have said, I didn't really, this didn't work for me. And it's so true. You have to find your demographic.

Host (53:37)
yeah yeah do you also do you also feel that because i i'm a huge love of of the market and they've they're becoming very successful in the city like they put on a good thing but it's almost i feel they're happening so often because you have wednesday you have saturday you have the thursday night market and then then they're trying to pull in weekend markets for special events like

for instance, the Kelowna-made one, but then all of these vendors are already at the, the Kelowna vendors are already at the farmer's market. And then it's almost like they're saturating the uniqueness of the farmer's market, because they're just everywhere all the time. And then you're not getting that, that crowd for some of them.

Sarah (54:21)
I 1000 % agree with all that. Like at Christmas when I see endless new markets popping up and I, seems like crafters are able to pay a lot more than vintage vendors. Some of the booth fees for our one day show are $300, which is a lot of money to cover. Yeah, some of them are. Yep, some of them are too. You gotta be selling a lot of crafts for 250 or even 150 or.

Host (54:40)
Just to get the tables through.

You gotta be selling a lot of

Sarah (54:50)
200 you got to really be selling a lot to make that worth it and I think it's endless and one of my friends who used to sell in the craft scene and then has moved to the vintage scene she said to me I think people are somewhat over the crafts because it's so saturated and

The consumables at farmers markets, the consumables really make sense to me, but some of the body products. Yeah, I wonder how many, how many can a person buy if the show is four times, these events are four times a week in the size of a city we are. Vintage is neat because there's no consumables, but it's all wearable items. And actually,

That I think is what keeps the shows going and the direction they're going is I think our generations are not collecting ornaments as much. Like I'll buy a few statement pieces a year, but I'm not buying a shelf full of depression glass. Although, hey, I got a really cool vendor with amazing barware and glassware, but I think people are a lot more eclectic in their ⁓ selections. And I think that's why the vintage shows work is I try to find vendors who have things that are highly desirable that are

wearable like clothes, jewelry, accessories, or just interesting decor that is usable in a home or records. Records are huge right now. So I love when my vendors bring records. Comics are really big. Just trying to find things that are usable. So Vernon does an incredible collector's show twice a year. And I went with my mom in the fall, was it? Or the spring? I forget what month it was. Anyway, it was absolutely

Incredible to go, it was all antiques. But as someone purchasing, a lot of them were really high end, hundreds of dollars, and I'm just not in that phase of life with younger kids, nor do we have the right shelves in our homes anymore to really display these items. So I've tried to keep my shows more ⁓ usable, wearable to keep them going, or what I think the consumer wants.

Host (56:51)
It's interesting too because vintage will always be vintage. Yeah, like if you buy something vintage today 20 years from now, it's just more vintage. Yes, but so there's that thing where you can hold on and pass these on or resell them because it's always vintage which is neat. Also, I feel The vintage stuff was just made better and it's so hard to find things nowadays that are actually Made with quality. Yeah

Sarah (57:09)
⁓ man.

Even 100 % cotton is

Host (57:17)
Yeah,

and then secondly, ⁓ how do you go about because the 90s trend is so popular right now and everybody's trying to wear vintage 90s. Yeah, but then you can see as a girl from the 90s that there's a lot of items out there are Made to look vintage or retro but they they're like cheaply made that they're now selling as vintage but it's not actually vintage it's just

know, consumerism of today's product. Do you try to decipher or not decipher? Do you sell the actual retro vintage or do you still sell stuff made to look vintage?

Sarah (57:54)
I would say we sell 90 % vintage. There's probably 10 % that sneaks in like cool jewelry with like neat stoneware or if it's like animal patterns. The t-shirts, I pretty much only sell vintage. I'm trying to think the last, no, you know what? I've allowed a few fast fashion items to sneak in here and there. Not very many, but if it's a really cool like Zara jacket or top, for example, ⁓

Host (58:04)
I thinking more like the t-shirt.

Sarah (58:21)
I'll let the odd things sneak in, very few and far between. ⁓ cause it kind of, it kind of annoys me on one hand. On the other hand, I think it's fueled like stores like home sense. It's all cheap but it's beautiful and it looks desirable. But I actually think there's been a spillover from people who enjoy going to stores, all these home senses example, but they also will come to my shows and they realize like, this is the actual vintage thing. It's so much cooler in your house to see.

Host (58:24)
Yeah.

Sarah (58:48)
So look at your wall and someone says, where did you get that picture? Instead of saying home sense, you say, I went to this really eclectic vintage show. think people want a story now. The story. ⁓ I've also think it's been neat working with, Gen Z and seeing how this generation is all about individualism more than ever before. And all that, that younger generation, like I'm talking early twenties once is to be super unique and they seem to only wear vintage. I don't know if that's.

Host (58:56)
Story behind it, yeah.

Sarah (59:17)
but from the vendors that I see and their followers and friends who come, seems like it's super sought after and I love the resurgence of 20-somethings coming to these shows. I think it's super important to continue it on for the next generations.

Host (59:30)
that's cool.

Sarah (59:31)
Yeah, because I think all of us carry such nostalgia from our childhoods we always go kind of go back to our childhoods and our earliest memories of, know, whatever it is, grandma's house or your own home and what your mom had on the walls. It's just so neat how that continues on.

Host (59:46)
Yeah and how it shapes and influences you for sure. Is there anything more you want to touch on or talk about?

Sarah (59:52)
I'll give that a minute to think about.

Host (59:55)
I do think it's cool that your children are getting to see the inner workings of the marketing and how to run a business and all the little details that go into it. And they're there and they're partaking that's valuable. I want to say it is education. It's just a valuable skillset to develop and see at such a young age. like, do you make sure you don't go into the red and all that stuff? Like as these kids are getting, as your kids are getting older, like to

to actually see and live that is invaluable, you know?

Sarah (1:00:26)
Yeah, it's really cool. Also, I think it's great because they get to interact with all different ages. And one thing that I obviously stepped away from my bachelor of social work that I have. yeah. Yeah. Well, that's so that I do feel like I've been able to really use the skills over the years, just dealing with vendors and community partners. And sometimes there is situations that come up that are hard to navigate or just being able to talk to people of different ages and, yeah, work with.

Host (1:00:36)
Let's circle back to

Sarah (1:00:54)
sometimes challenging situations during the show. feel like my bachelor's degree has helped me with that and also with also being a community partner and participating in community. think a lot of people don't really participate in the community that they live in. So for me, just trying to be a strong participant in the community and like rising others up that are around me and different organizations has been really neat way to use that degree.

Host (1:01:19)
that's really cool. I feel like that's your personality too. Just the vibe you give off you definitely like you bring it up Feel good around so no, that's cool. Yeah, I'm looking forward to your the event

Sarah (1:01:25)
thank you, Allison.

Thank you! ⁓

Host (1:01:48)
Well, thanks for that's wrap her up. Thank you so much for coming on

Sarah (1:01:51)
Thank you, Allison. Thanks for having me. it so fun. Okay. That was awesome. And I totally forgot that I was being recorded.

Host (1:01:53)
Have a good time.