From Bibles to yo-yos (and everything in between)

Vendors seek success at Grant County Fair

MOSES LAKE — When it comes to finding success at the Grant County Fair, several factors are in play.

But, as Grant County Fairgrounds fair and facility manager Al Holman points out, there are different ways to measure success.

"It depends on the business you're in — if you're in direct sales, and your product is here, obviously, it's how much product you move," Holman said. "If you're in an informational situation, you're trying to get name exposure. (A real estate company) is not selling a house here today, but they're trying to get name exposure and be a community supporter."

Holman noted that people are also out at the fair for purely philanthropic reasons, to support the fair and the community, more than they are as a business.

Food booths are a little bit different, Holman added.

"Spaceburgers is the quintessential success here, in the sense of, you can put it in your hand and walk with it, the price is not large, it is unique and it's been here a long time," he said. Another successful booth is White's Concessions, which offers multiple products on a broader menu and offers what Holman called "quintessential fair food.

"People go to the fair and they want an elephant ear or they want a hot dog," he said. "Fair food is its own name. You say 'fair food' to anyone who's ever been near a fair, they know exactly what you're talking about. Fair food is a cuisine. It's its own nature."

Booth marketers coming to the Grant County Fair should first understand their motivation, and then find a niche in the market and satisfy it, Holman advised.

"Here is no different than marketing any other place," he said. "There are businesses and situations that don't work well at fairs in a commercial enterprise sense … You wouldn't come out here and show off something at this particular county fair or a lot of others if you're selling caskets. Not the appropriate place. It's just not where you do that."

Fans are real popular with some people walking around the fair, and Holman noted that they are good for an informational booth, adding that they will also last a while.

The first major resource for the Grant County Fair is the gate attendance, and second is the carnival. Next comes commercial vendors, which is unusual, Holman said. At the majority of fairs, the food is a larger revenue percentage, above carnival and commercial vendors.

"In your standard fair vendor-type stuff, you always get down to the guy selling Ginsu knives and doing the little food demonstration, because people stop, watch and it's entertaining," he said. "People are here to be entertained. It's a lot better to get something free, a freebie, a hand out, a sample or watch a show. So those kinds of vendors do very well, because they're providing a show. That, and I still haven't figured out how they make the little rosettes out of the tomato."

Holman said that when it comes to food, Spaceburgers is the highest grossing vendor of commercial or non-profit, and as a sales-based enterprise.

"They're delicious," explained Sandy Melbye matter-of-factly. Melbye is a member of the Moses Lake Lioness Club, which offers the Spaceburgers, utilizing the machine from the 1961 World's Fair in Seattle, and one of the shift chairmen in the Lioness booth.

Melbye said it was hard to estimate how many people come by the booth, because the people working shifts are too busy making the burgers.

"The people in the community, they're used to them," she said. "They're something that's been going on for so long that, whether they like them or not, I think they show up for them. There's people that tell us all year long, they just can't wait. They're out here first thing, when we start selling."

Sam Jenkins brought his new business, Yo Yo Sam, to the fair for the first time because he thought it looked like a good opportunity. As a kid, he remembered attending fun runs in Moses Lake. He remembered how much fun he had at the fair, and so he decided to return, coming from La Grand, Ore.

"A lot of people are coming through, remembering how much fun yo-yoing used to be," he said, adding that he's been yo-yoing for 10 months, and in business for a month.

Jenkins said the interest he's generated has been enough to make it worth his while.

"I did a fair down where I'm at and the first couple days, you have the 4-H guys come through and they'll look and go, 'I want one, I want one, but I haven't sold my pig yet, I haven't sold my sheep yet, I haven't sold my rabbit yet.'"

Jenkins said that towards the end of the last day, after the youth sell their animals and get their money, there's a flood of customers.

"These first days are just sort of for finding the kids who are going to want them and then later on, they'll come back and buy them," he said.

Night Scare Productions, which puts on an annual charity haunted house at the fairgrounds for Halloween, has a food booth at the fair to raise more money for donations and add to the haunted house this year, said Night Scare vice president Woody Rowley.

Ephrata-based Jep Saw A Tree owner Jethro Brewer offers chainsaw carvings. He's been doing it for five or six years, but full time since May.

Brewer said he's gotten a lot of interest, but had not sold much Wednesday afternoon.

"Right at this stage, I need to have a good week," he said when asked how important the business he draws in at the fair will be for Jep Saw A Tree.

It was also the first time with a booth for Gideon International, said Troy Jimerson, president of the Gideons for Grant County.

He said that the company is located in Moses Lake as a central point for the county, and has been for 30 years.

"The Gideons in this area are really on fire, they're really moving," he said. "We were given the opportunity to have a lot of Bibles to be able to hand out here for free, so that's why it was this year (that Gideon had a booth), and we're hoping to be here next year, too."

Jimerson estimated that 3,000 Bibles will be handed out each day.

"No donations, no nothing, we're just giving out Bibles," he said. "That's it."

Yo Yo Sam, Night Scare Productions, Jep Saw A Tree and Gideon International are amongst a host of new booths hitting the Grant County Fair this year.

"The greatest thing (about having a booth at the fair) is access to over 60,000 people," Grant County Fairgrounds office manager Ed Spalding said, noting that some businesses see more general traffic than they may see in a single business year.