How To Prevent Theft At Your Craft Fair Booth: 10 Tips
So, you’re selling your crafts at craft fairs. You have prepared for your fair and have worked hard making each craft item to be sold. You believe that all potential customers come to your booth to shop. The reality is, thieves exist to rob you of your hard earned crafts. Theft can eat away at your profits. Just today, selling at a vendor pop up, I discovered a missing earring on a rack that I didn’t sell. It was stolen. It can happen to any vendor. Here are ten tips that I hope are helpful in preventing future theft at your craft fair booth. These tips are not exhaustive and you can probably think of other ones, but I hope something can be gleaned from them.
10 Tips To Help Prevent Theft At Your Craft Fair Booth:
Set up your display so that you have a clear view of all items and make sure that there are no blind spots for thieves to hide behind.
Greet each customer as they come to your booth. This signifies to them that you are aware of their presence and that you are keeping an eye on them.
Keep your money on you by using a money belt, Fanny belt, apron, or the like. This prevents thieves from snatching your cash box when no one is looking, I participated at a market and learned that at the end of the day when everyone was cleaning up, a vendor had his cash box stolen as he turned his back for a second to put things away. This could have been avoided if he kept his cash in him.
Keep small and easy-to-steal items right in front of you so that you can monitor when customers are looking at them.
Keep costly items locked up. I have a locked glass display case to display my most expensive pieces. Customers can ask to see something while you are watching them. This display case is also locked to the table so that no one can run away with it.
You can have a rule to limit the number of people looking at your booth at once to minimize theft in the crowds.
Employ the help of an extra pair of eyes to keep watch if you know the fair will be busy.
Use mirrors to help keep watch on customers.
Have your booth well organized so that you can easily see if something is missing. A booth in disarray is an invitation for thieves.
Have items at an arm’s reach away so that customers will have to extend an arm to see something making it obvious that they are handling an item.