Bohemian Grange Hall expo

Sunday, December 11, Tammy organized an expo for home based businesses like her Tastefully Simple business.

For a place to hold the expo she found and rented the Bohemian Grange Hall south of Whitefish, Montana.  Because part of the goal of the expo was to collect winter clothing for the Evergreen Panty, Tammy was able to get fifty free posters printed for her event.

Fourteen vendors including Tammy said they would be at the expo.  Twelve vendors showed up that day.

Because Tammy and I were running the expo we had to be at the grange before the other vendors started to arrive at 9 am.  We were there at 8:20 am on a cold frosty morning.  I had to take care when driving as some sections of the road were slippery.

The grange is a two story building and some vendors had to be on the second floor.  There were plenty of electrical outlets for vendors to use.

All the vendors were ready when the first customer showed up right at 11 am.  What seemed to be a good sign, wasn't.  It was a slow day.  All total we maybe had around 30 customers. Tammy and I put posters up all around Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls.  We had the expo listed in the events sections of the locals newspapers and on a number of radio stations.  So the word should have been out there for people to know about the expo.

Maybe it was because it was a Sunday. Maybe it was because people are worn out from all the Christmas shopping.  Maybe it was the location.  I don't know why the turnout was so light.

A number of vendors sold a few items, but overall it was a dead day.  Even though the expo was to go until 4 pm, we all made the decision to pack up and leave after 3:30 pm.  All the vendors were gone before 4:30 pm.  Tammy and I had to clean the building in order to get our deposit back so we didn't leave until 5 pm.

Bohemian Grange Hall

We could have made better signs.

All the vendors were to bring sweet and/or salty food.  Most vendors brought sweets.  One vendor brought Cosco wheat bread on top of which he added Parmesan cheese and with his homemade Ratatouille.  It was very tasty.

Some of the food the vendors brought

Tammy's location.