We had our first holiday shop this year and it was a huge success. We used Small World, but don't think they will be our main supplier next year. We supplimented our holiday shop with Dollar store items. The kids and the teachers loved the idea of having things from the Dollar store. We marked things up by .50 and flashlight, screwdrivers and icescrappers were flying off the table. We purchased over $3K from the Dollar Store. The nice thing about doing that was anything left over they took back for a refund. The kids were also enjoying all the jewerly so we went out to Walmart and bought 3 pc. jewerly sets for $4.97 and sold them for 5.50. We could not keep enough on the table. We learned alot for this beginning our first time.
Just wanted to get back and update how our holiday shop went.....In a previous post I stated we were using Kids Korner for the 1st time this year.
WE were very pleased with them.....staff, students, and parents a like commented on how nice the selection of product was. And the shopping envelopes were a big hit with the Pricipal...who was leary of students bringing cash to school. Using this vendor was a good experience and we are pretty much agreed on using them again next year!
We use elves from our 5th grade class for assistance with our students as they shop. I had an elf camp, so they were trained on how to help the kids shop. They were up and ready with the envelopes and knew to keep the kids within their budget. Last year, the first day was a disaster trying to get everyone shopped. This year we used our Library and had the kids coming in every 30 minutes. My 5th grade teachers pick out their best students academically as well as not being in trouble (principal's office). They were told at the first of the year that some would be selected to be elves and to stay on their best behavior. I've already talked to my 4th graders about next year and what the Santa Shop is all about, so they are looking forward to next year. I had to drop a couple of my elves before the shop started. One was flipping rubber bands at another elf and hit him in the face, and the other one commented to me (after acting up during elf camp) "What do we get out of this?" After talking to his teacher, he was released back to class. I then let him talk to me before the shop started and when I asked him what our shop and Christmas was all about he said, "To have fun." Nothing about helping others - he had no idea what the true meaning of Christmas is. My PTO secretary and Library aide was in the room when he told me this, we just couldn't believe it. I do have to say though we were worried about our 5th grade class being elves (not the best class around) but they were awesome. I can't wait for next year. We are ready for another great year of seeing those smiling faces as the kids make their purchases. It is all worth it then!!
Thanks for the info. We have had two years of less than even good companies. I don't know if the teachers will even want to bother at all with it next year.
Hi, our register didn't 'void' a complete sale either. What we did when the child had $35 in merchandise and $5 to spend was just 'total' the order out and put the printed receipt in an envelop next to the register. When we had time, we went back and did a 'void' and individually voided each item (the register allowed us to do this). Saved us a lot of stress! We would take all the items and put them aside, give the child to a volunteer to guide them through a re-choosing and move on to the next child in line. As I said, we need to reorganize our entire event...extend the number of days and increase the amount of time to shop per class to 30 minutes (was 20 minutes)...the selection was really that good from Kids Korner! We've been down the road of disappointment and frustration with other vendors, we think we found a winner and look forward to working with them next year.
~K
Wow, lucky you! I am jealous! We used the other company, the regiseter ran out of tape, they included a dvd of instructions on how to change the paper, but there is no time to watch when there are thirty kids waiting to be rang up. Then the register just stopped printing anything. Our "void" key was a pain cause it wouldn't "void" a sale, say the kid had $5 and brought up $35 worth of merchandise.
Maybe I will check into this company. Have to think about it.
