Unique Boutique & Mica Sprays
I went to the Unique Boutique in Sunnyvale’s Senior Center yesterday. There I met two very helpful women who gave me the form for the jury process and lots of information. I also became a member of the Senior Center, because that’s a requirement for selling through the Unique Boutique.
Finances
10% of your sale price goes to the City of Sunnyvale as rent for your space in the store. This is not sales tax. You have to pay sales tax in addition to the rent. If you volunteer in the store for 3 days/month, the 10% rent is all you pay. If you don’t volunteer, you have to pay an additional 20% for a total of 30%. Volunteers work from 10 to 2.30 pm on their days.
You have to join the Unique Boutique association to become a vendor. They prorate the membership, so if I join in August I’d pay $8 for the rest of the year. That’s $2/month.
You are allowed to price your products yourself. However, if you sell products similar to another vendor you are not allowed to undercut their price. It’s unclear to me how similar a product has to be to for this rule to kick in. Is it the same for all greeting cards, for instance? Or do they distinguish between sizes, sentiments or complexity? Hopefully I’ll get guidance from the jury on that.
Price tags have to show your membership number, the price and a description of the product.
Craft fairs
The Unique Boutique has two two-day craft fairs per year. One the first weekend in November and one the first weekend in May. These are big money makers for the makers who sell through UB.
Jury process
Unique Boutique is actively looking for new vendors. They jury new products on the second Wednesday of every month, except of October and April. The reason they don’t jury in those months is that they got makers who just wanted to participate in the craft fairs without pulling their weight the rest of the year. So right now is a great time to apply!
The jury meets at 10 am. You can hang out outside the meeting room and find out right away if you were accepted. But it’s better to hand in your products the day before, so the jury has time to look at your products.
My products
Obviously I want to submit my greeting cards. I could also submit mini albums, boxes, earrings and card holders. Existing members can get new product lines juried in, so I don’t have to submit everything right away.
Halloween Mica Sprays
Tim Holtz’ seasonal Halloween mica spray stains have been released! Contrary to what Tim said last year, there are new colors. Keep in mind that once they’re gone, they’re gone. I know I’m going to stock up.
Tim will present the colors on his YouTube channel next Saturday, August 5. But there are already lots of people who have swatched the new colors and created with them. Check out Tim’s stories on Insta.
