School Holiday Boutique

​Setting Up Your Holiday Shop / Fair

1. Book your holiday fair early.  Take advantage of any early sign-up bonuses.  This will give you plenty of
time to plan a successful and fun holiday fair that everyone will enjoy.  Fill-out your contract completely
and fax it to : 1-866-310-7681.  Choose and confirm your dates around your school’s needs. If your dates are
not available, we will call you at a later time to get the dates from you.  You should run your fair for 3 days
or more, depending on the size of you school.  Also, make sure to select a snow date, just in case the weather
is bad for your original dates!  After this is complete you can begin to plan running your fair successfully.

2. Choose an appropriate location.  You will need at least 5 long tables and plenty of space for the children
to have room to view the gifts that are available for them to purchase.  You do not want a very small crowded
area, this will make it difficult for the children to enjoy their shopping experience.

3. Organize your committee.  It is not something you can run yourself!  Try not to have your fair so close
to the holiday, because everyone is busy preparing for their own holiday season, try to have it a little earlier
if possible. You will need additional volunteers to help at the tables and also to help the younger children do
their shopping.  Sometimes the older children can help the younger, or you can schedule the parents of the
younger children to come and help their child shop.  The more volunteers you have the easier it will be for
you to run your fair.

4. Promoting your holiday fair is easy.  We will provide you with posters to put around your school and
budget envelopes for your children to bring their money in to shop with.  This will be shipped to your
school about three to four weeks before your fair begins.  Make sure you start to mention that your fair
will be coming in any letters that you send home to the parents, start this early.  Mention it at your first
Parent Association meeting, when your school resumes after the summer break.  About a week before your
fair send a letter home with all the information regarding the dates and times your fair will be open along
with the budget envelope attached.  A day or two before the beginning of the fair you could send home a
short reminder note!  You want the children to be excited that the fair is coming so mention it everywhere,
school news letters, bulletin boards, flyers in each classroom, school’s website or Parent Association website.  
You should also leave information on your Parent Association voice mail if available.  Just try to be creative
to keep the children excited that the fair will be coming.  

5. Your merchandise delivery should be early.  You should have you fair delivered at least one to two weeks
prior to the start of your fair.  Please make sure that you have a secured, locked area to store all your gift
items.  You do not have to be present when your fair is delivered, however please make sure you notify your
office or your custodian that your fair will be coming and where you would like it to be stored.  Before the
boxes are signed for make sure they are counted and that they were not damaged in shipping.  Make sure
whoever signs for the delivery notes how many boxes were received and also which box was damaged (if any)
with the UPS driver.

6. Inventory and pricing is easy.  First open the box marked with the sticker PTA or PTO.  All your
inventory sheets will be inside this box in a large envelope.  Each box has its own inventory sheet, so it
is very simply to do your receiving inventory.  Please always do an inventory when you receive your
merchandise because you do not want to be charged for any missing or broken items.  Please note everything
on your inventory sheets.  We will get a copy of them when your fair is complete.  On your paper work it will
tell you the item description, how many you received and our cost to you for each piece.  You will have to
raise the price to include whatever profit margin you would like to make on your fair.  For example: if an
item cost $1.00 and you would like to make a 20% profit then you would have to charge the children $1.20
for this item.  While you are doing your inventory you can make up price stickers with the name of the item
on it and the price (with your increase) on the sticker.  You can not mark any items with stickers or
markers, because everything is on consignment!  You do not have to do an inventory on your returns if you
do not want to!  We can do the inventory when we receive it back and then we can bill you.  It is up to you!

7. Setting up you fair is simple.  Set-up your fair the day before your boutique will begin, however please
make sure it is kept in a locked, secure area.  You can set-up your fair in categories, that is how we will ship
it to you.  You can have a ladies table, a mens table, a kids table, etc.  You can put one sample of each item
on the table and stick the price sticker that you made for that item on the tablecloth in front of it.  Make
sure that you have enough space to move around each table so that the children can shop easily.
Again, please do not mark any item!

8. When the children arrive to shop.  Make sure they have enough time to enjoy themselves.  Also, please
make sure that you have all your volunteers arrive early so that they will be prepared when the children
begin to come in to shop.  Make sure you have enough volunteers to help the younger children shop.

9. Reorders are easy.  If your sale is up to 3 days you are allowed one reorder.  If your sale is more than 3
days you are allowed two reorders.  Please fax your reorder by 1:30 pm eastern standard time, and call our
toll free number to verify that your fax was received.  

10. When you fair is complete do a final inventory.  Please condense your boxes to as least as possible.  
Put a copy of your inventory sheets inside one of the boxes (keep a copy for yourself) along with your check
for the total of merchandise that you sold.  Call our toll free number and let us know how many boxes you
will be returning, we will forward you, your return shipping labels and complete instructions.  If we are going
to do your final inventory please still include a copy of your receiving inventory information inside one of the
sealed boxes.