Women Need Advice (re: roses at meets?)

[shelovestoflip]

Hair flower bouquets? I assume they go IN hair and are not made out of hair? Would love to see a picture.

I did vending at our home meet. The dollar store is your friend. Mylar balloon + weighted base = $2, sold for $5. Sold out of them. Clear plastic tumblers with lids and straws + hair ties + hand sanitizer + some candy = $3, sold for $7. Sold out of them. And if we hadn't sold out of them, I could have returned them (or saved them for the next meet). I got lots of complements that we were offering different things and for reasonable prices. We ended up with next to nothing left over.

Those are all amazing ideas! Though I"ve never seen those clear tumblers at our $ store!!

 

[shelovestoflip]

lol...that WAS pretty vague and strange sounding, huh? The ever popular hair flower clips...like a hairbow... You can get them from Halo Heaven pretty cheaply. I clip them onto a green pipe cleaner "stem" (loop a little leaf) and then take three, wrap them in a tissue paper and tie a pretty bow around them.-Instant "bouquet" We sell them usually with a shout out and then deliver them to the girls during awards. This year, we glittered the flowers, bc that was what was the popular trend. It IS a little time consuming, but I can usually find moms at the gym sitting during classes that are willing to help.

In my experience, anything that you sell with a shout out during the competition and then promise to deliver right to the kids during awards goes over really big. Candy gram, hair flower bouquets, tumble grams (Tumblers full of bubble gum), etc. And it works the best during the L3, L4 and L5 sessions where the kids are mostly younger.

Shout outs must be a regional thing...my daughter is Level 8 and I've only ever had them at one meet....and honestly, I hated it! Found it to be so distracting...already enough going on for me!!

 

[MaryA]

Those are all amazing ideas! Though I"ve never seen those clear tumblers at our $ store!!

Pretty much we were running out of stuff after the first day of the meet so I just went and wandered the aisles of the dollar store and tried to think creatively. If they don't have the cups, maybe they have water bottles, or cute little baskets (Easter stuff is out). And they'll definitely have stuff like ponytail holders, lip gloss, nail polish... I'm sure you could put together some cute little gifts.

 

[shelovestoflip]

I'm with the others, I would not buy real flowers at a meet, the majority of the girls that compete are younger and would not appreciate them nor do they last. Candygrams, teddygrams, tshirts etc have always been great sellers. One thing that we did in Cali that I rarely if ever see done anywhere else is sell pins. Level, 9.0, 1st on ..., 1st AA, I got my kip, etc. Its probably to late to get those but it could be an idea for the future.

I was just going to reply saying there is one meet we go to that sells pins every year. My daughter has a few we have gotten over the years there.

As for flowers, I wouldn't buy them. Honestly, I don't buy anything except the pin at the meet I just mentioned and at States I always buy my daughter a sweatshirt. Never anything else.

Our gym hosts a meet and we only do a concession stand and we sell leotards etc....We make a lot at concession and we charge $10 or $12 admission....which is on par with what others charge around here for invites not a the gym.

It's hard enough getting parents to sign up to volunteer for the meet....can't imagine finding volunteers to make all the great stuff mentioned here!

The tumbler does sound really cool, though!!

 

[emorymom]

I would not buy cut flowers at a meet.

 

[mamaS]

Good Morning, here's what I did. The owner owner of our gym really wanted flowers to be available. I found inexpensive carnations for 38 cents a piece. They are a gazillion percent easier to keep alive than roses. We won't lose money at all. We will sell stuffed animal grams and have raffles. We made around 6 grand at our home meet. I'm hoping to come close to matching that at state. Hopefully, the younger girl's families will want to make this last meet special and buy. We'll see.

 

[JBS]

All the clubs by us get their gymnasts real flowers for State on their own. It's one of our season fees...$10 State Flower Fee.

When we host a meet...we sell fake roses. They cost us $.20 each and we sell them for $5.00/half dozen. We have tons of colors and we have the parents design their own bouquets. They tie them together with a special tag that they get to write a note on.

 

[gymgurl]

Normally our coach buys them for us but only at state

 

[gymgurl]

But we have jerbras instead

 

[Jill Fox]

I think flowers are a beautiful gesture, a classic token of love and all girls love to get a flower, young or old. It's a great tradition, I remember getting flowers as a young gymnast. I vote for roses!!!

 

[Kiwi]

Wow, your meets sound so different to ours! Here there is usually only a stall selling food and drink. Occasionally someone with a stand of leotards. No flowers or soft toys or anything.