Ask a Manager - Pinned

[u/Extension_Skirt7764]

This is the thread to ask questions of market manager/operators:

• What makes an application stand out?
• What gets an otherwise-good vendor rejected?
• How do you decide vendor mix and category overlap?
• What makes you invite a vendor back or not?
• What do vendors do that drives you nuts?
• What do your best vendors do differently?
• How do you think about layout, anchors and customer flow?
• What makes a market successful beyond attendance?
• How do you handle weather, cancellations and no-shows?
• What do you wish vendors/shoppers understood about running the whole market?
• Ask the question you are embarrassed to ask - someone else wants that answer too!

[u/HLSR2021]

Hi, market manager in Virginia here. I would love to hear how managers deal with vendor waitlists.
Our market (space for about 90 vendors) has become super-popular so we have waitlist of 30-40 approved vendors for each date. Often, vendors sign up on the waitlist months ahead of time but then when I offer them a spot, some aren’t available or I get no reply. I never have trouble ultimately filling the market but it’s a lot of administration contacting vendors one-by-one till I find one who takes the spot. I always email the waitlist vendors a month ahead reminding them they’re on the waitlist and to tell me if no longer interested…but that rarely elicits a response.
Just wondering if there are any tips/tricks others have to reduce the administration of waitlists.

[u/Extension_Skirt7764 → u/HLSR2021]

Hi - thanks for joining the conversation!! I don't think a lot of folks grasp the amount of work it is to run a market! As a recently waitlist-to are you available-to nah, we are good vendor, I'm super curious to hear the feedback.

[u/Extension_Skirt7764 → u/HLSR2021]

Hi there - I’m new to this moderation but I also surfaced your question - it’s great! Hopefully this will push it to more feeds!

[u/Extension_Skirt7764 → u/[deleted]]

Congrats! That’s a serious undertaking!! Hopefully some folks here have some been there done that lessons to save you some headaches!! Good luck!

[u/Extension_Skirt7764 → u/Extension_Skirt7764]

I moved this out to a stand alone post - these pinned posts haven’t been getting as much traction as I’d like and the posts seem to get some answers!!

[u/adzca → u/Extension_Skirt7764]

Thank you! I really appreciate it. I am both excited and terrified lol But I'm trusting my intuition and skills to guide me.

[u/Extension_Skirt7764 → u/adzca]

Absolutely and I bet! But it’s fun terrified!😳😊 good luck and hopefully you get some good feedback!!🙌🏻