Think Vendor Fees Are Just Profit? Think Again.

We are looking back at why we started 702 Market, how 702 Chisme came to be, and the mission that has guided us from day one. We also break down where those vendor fees go, why we charge what we charge, and what it really takes to host free community events. If you've ever wondered what happens behind the scenes, this episode is for you. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Hey everyone, welcome back to 702 Cheesement where we talk all things small businesses, local vendors, market life, and a little bit of cheesement in between.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I'm Samantha. And I'm Sabrina. What's up, guys? It's been a month, I think, since we last talked to you. No, but we did talk to them like two weeks ago. Yeah. With Nancy, which was our special guest, um, on the last episode, which um hopefully you guys heard and listened to her. But um now it is our turn to speak.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yes. So Samatha, catch them up. How was your week? Well, before we get into that, it's kind of like uh how are we supposed to act?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Well, we have to act professional, remember? Are like are we supposed to be professional, unprofessional?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

No, like gossipy. I don't know. I guess we can't tell our side of the story because that's bashing vendors. So we have to be professional and we have to not laugh and make jokes, I guess. Yes. So we have to act. So I'm thinking, change your tone of voice too. Hi guys. Hi guys, how are you guys doing? So that's this is what you guys want. Like there's no it's not fun. Like we have to be fun. If not, no one's gonna listen. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

But besides that, whatever. Yeah. Let's get into it. Like you said, what's achievement? What's been going on for like a month since we haven't talked to them?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

I feel like every time that we do this, we always forget like what's going on. But I know that we did see Toy Story. Mm-hmm. That was a rating of like that was a nine out of ten. Ten out of ten.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Yeah, ten out of ten. It was pretty good. Yeah. And then we saw that um other one Love Letters to Isabella. Yeah. That was really good. That's ten out of ten. That was really good. Saw House of Dragons, the new first uh third season, the third season, first episode, which was like really, really good. I read the book, so I kinda like have a feel for it. But it that was really good. Um, movie-wise, I think that's like been it. That's funny how we hit movies first.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, it's like important. I mean, we haven't tried any new restaurants or anything. We always stick to the same things. I don't know if you guys know we have uh celiac disease. Yes. So we can't eat like bread, wheat, stuff like that. So like eating wise, it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

It kinda sucks in Vegas. There's not that many options. If there is, they don't really take it serious. It's more like a diet kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

It's better, like Cali has more options.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yeah, way more options. They take um celiac more serious for some reason out there.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Yeah. Which is kind of crazy. Um, what else? We uh We haven't really done much. My mom has her boot on still, but she finally got like the green flag that one more month to go. Yes. Then she's done. And she can take it off. Um, so that's like a relief finally. Um we want to go to Calabunga Canyon, but we don't know like how that would work.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

With her boot. So we're waiting till she gets to the box.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Well, she just float in the lazy river, or like how does that the boot.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

The boot would hold her up so she wouldn't need a a a what's it called?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

We want to go though. I mean, we wanted to go to Sedona. That's somewhere that we like going to.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

But Sedona's peaceful. For anybody who hasn't been to Sedona, I would suggest it. It's like it's weird because like when we went when we were younger with my grandparents, they took us there for the very first time. And it's like once you go, once you go, like enter it, it's like you're escaping into like a like another world. Like it's so peaceful, even the mountain real.

SPEAKER_00 4:29

Like it's it's a diff it's a good experience to have.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Yeah, so we wanted to do Sedona, but there's like five fire right now going on.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

And it's kind of scary because it's all around everyone.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Nevada, Utah, Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

It's yeah, like you said, it's everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Everywhere, so we couldn't do that. So that was kind of a bum. Hopefully everyone's okay though. Besides that, I think that's pretty much it that we've been I mean, we've been working behind the scenes. We can't really um say some of the new stuff coming up. There's a lot of new things that we're gonna be announcing. We're excited about it. We came up with some other ideas. We're on constantly thinking. We're trying, trying our best. Yes. So that a couple of things behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Um we've just been doing our own thing. I mean, Samantha, um, her daughter's on summer break break, and then she just caught a cold, so that's something we have to deal with. Uh she has strep throat. Yeah. You gotta name the illness she got. Um strep throat, guys. And me, I'm just chilling. Chilling. I'm trying to figure out like a rebrand for my style right now and like that stuff. Sabrita's like, it's like every other month. It's like I'm rebranding. It's like okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Yeah, I want to figure out my style and my aesthetic. I got shorts the other day, and Sabrina's like, you're dressing like a mom. And I'm like, god damn it.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

She got like, they're not jorts. They're jorts, but like not jorts. They're tight shorts. So it's like mom jorts.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah. So I'm like, I just need my fanny pack and I'm all in.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

Yeah, but that's pretty much it.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

So we've been getting a lot of new um what would it be, listeners?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Listeners, which think you know, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Huge thank you. Yes, sorry to cut you off, but the cool thing about a podcast is you can keep track of who listens. Yeah. And I w I don't know if you can see who views it. Like, um, you can see the accounts who view it. But it's pretty cool that you can do that and we see that our numbers are rising, so that means it's more listening.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

It was like a dramatic rise. So we're like, hell yeah. So, um, because it's been a couple of episodes already into it. We kinda like wanted to kind of do like a redo episode. Not a redo, but like a re what's that? Like for those who haven't for those who have who don't know or who don't want to listen to the first episode. So little backstory is uh like we said in the beginning, I'm Samantha. I'm 20, I forgot my age. 28. 28. Yeah, 28. And then my sister is Sabrina, 23. It's family owned, 702 is a family owned. Our parents, us two, and then uh my daughter. Um I'm a single mom. Sabrina is a single doggy mom.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Yeah. Single dog mom. Well, I ha he has a stepfather, but I'm the main mother. I pay child support, everything like that.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

So she pays child support to herself.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Oh yeah. You're dumb. But we're both young. Um are we entrepreneurs? I never I never um understand what the word entrepreneur means. Yeah, I don't know either. Entrepreneur and business women. I don't know how to say it, so I'm not gonna say it. We're both two young businesswoman. It's wom it's mainly family-owned, but me and my sister are the ones the faces behind it. Um we started three years ago. We have grown from Arizona Charlie's to Fantastic to now a street closure at Ferguson's, and now we have two, three more locations.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

We have the boulevard rooftop, going to start the Western, um, Western casino, and then we also have Calabunga. That was we were gonna start it, but then some permit issues happen, and then um we're gonna restart it again. Yes. But um basically when we started three years ago, we were given this opportunity by someone, and uh it was gonna be like a one-time thing, help and get all vendors together because we started as a small business. So we kinda knew the behind the scenes of like vendors, things like that. Not the intense route, but just vendors. So we knew the whole market world. But um, we got together with this person, ended up getting vendors, and then it just kind of went from there to an LLC, a bank account. It just went by fast.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yeah. And next thing you know, we're hosting the markets by ourselves, handling everything from um marketing. We are we ho what's that that's saying? We we have hats. We have multiple hats on us. We were multiple hats. Yes. So we are our own bosses, boss marketing. I mean, I guess you uh if you're a small business yourself, you kind of know what we're talking about. We do the same things, but more in a sense. Yeah. Uh bigger sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Bigger things. Yeah, more bigger things that a lot of people aren't aware of um behind the scenes. But yeah, that kind of gives like a little little tiny update update of who we are, what we do.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

So 702 Market was basically uh Well, actually, before you jump into that, I know uh we've seen people asking about who we are. Like who it who are the people behind 702 Market. For some reason, a lot of people are asking that now. Yes, asking who's behind the LLC. So we just wanted to just come on here. It's no secret. We're here. Hi guys. Yeah, we're here. We've had this podcast for a while. Uh we don't have We just started it not too long ago. I think no, actually it's been like five months since January. Oh wow. So we've been um we've been here six months.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Six months, but we wanted to a little bit more information into that. We wanted to start a podcast because our 702 page is more business, our market, our community. It's the more business end of it, you know. Um we we went into this market with the business mentality, like we can't be unprofessional, have to be professional, you know, uh everything has to be a good thing. Everything has to be picture perfect, kind of thing. That's how we kind of saw it. Um so that's when we decided to do 702 cheese, our podcast, is to kind of like give you guys the laid-back version of us, like who we are, you know, talk our stuff.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Also share behind the scenes of what we go through as market organizers and also share the stories behind the vendors that we work with. Yes. So that's where 702 Cheesma came into place. It wasn't really to like bash bash people or be unprofessional in a sense, it was more of like a just a way of having fun, t sharing stories, sharing our side of the story because I think a lot of people forget that we are people also.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Um, there's always two sides to the story to every situation, and we feel like we have a right as people to share the story also.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yeah, so that's why we created kind of seminal two cheese ma. That's uh so that's where it kind of shows you we have like different little things that we try to do.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

And there's little more things that we're planning to do. Yes. We just haven't got around to it, but it is in the works.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Yes, we're working on it, but we get busy with a bunch of other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

It's just it seems like every time we have like a path and we have goals to do, something kind of gets thrown in the middle and we get sidetracked.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah. But I see it as like um what's that? Like a sign? Right? It's not the right time to like do it yet. That's how I see it. It might be not the right time. Like it's being pushed to okay, it's gonna everything happens for a reason.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

No, I believe that too.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

Yeah. So, but that's basically like the little background of us.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

That's a little um catch-up for people who don't know about us or haven't listened or need a reminder of who we are. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

So we gave you guys like a little background to catch you up. And um We're on a roll today. Yeah, we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

I feel like we're hitting everything, we're scheduled, planned out. Maybe we need to do podcasts during the day more. I know. We have more energy. I know, but um, damn, you cut me off.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I was thinking I was gonna say something. Sorry. Man, what was I gonna say? I'll remember it.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Well, the next topic that we wanted to touch was something that we've been seeing online and it's been happening for a while. We see.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Oh, that's what I was gonna say before I forgot. Yeah. Um, no, that uh going back into the whole cheese met and where we started, um, I think it's kinda we started cheese met also because people say we're unprofessional, professional, you have to be business, you have to so that's where it's kind of hard because that's what cheese met the 7-0 cheese met is all about.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Is we're being professional but we're being ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Well honestly, I feel like right now, um, and I haven't felt this way before, but I feel like we're on we're under like microscope and I feel like we're being judged and um like picked apart for the things we say. And anything we say on here is not to become defensive or it's like we're bat we're bashing people, or we're just it's just tell our story and that's it, it's nothing too serious.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Yeah, I think a lot of like out of proportion.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

I think it's not even us, I think it's everyone that you you forget that people are human. Like uh if we message a certain way or we respond a certain way, it's like you guys are messaging robots. Like, I don't know if that's like people's mentality, they forget that we're actually.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

No, I think a lot of people forget that there's always different tones to messaging. So if someone says, Oh, they came off a rude way, to us we didn't. Yeah. But on messaging, there's um there's never tone that you can you can pick from it.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

So it's kind of like it's that's always been something though. Yeah, so that's one thing. Breed into emotion just what we say.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Like I feel like we've been judged a lot, saying that we're unprofessional or the way we talk. But then we compare ourselves to other people and we're like, wait, why are we being picked apart for it from it if other people are comfortable with doing it and don't care? Mm-hmm. So it's like kinda like a double standard that is there for us.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yeah, it's never a win-win situation. Yeah. I think people are just never gonna be happy either way.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, but switching topics, what I was talking about before, Samatha. Um, we uh have been seeing a lot of like controversy and topics being brought up about vendor fees and how a lot of markets and we came across a video actually today, and this is why we wanted to talk about this, was because a video came up on TikTok and we saw that they said something like, um, a lot of Las Vegas markets are scamming and they take money from you and their prices are so high. And originally I saw it saw it from someone else who did it, like in California. There's a lot, it's all over the US right now.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

I saw some in Florida. Really? Yeah, Florida somebody was getting mad.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

And I can't speak for their um on their part because I don't know how California permits or any of that works, or like the markets that are charging high. I can't speak from them. But I can speak from our experience and the things that we have to do on our side to give you kind of like uh educate the baddies. Yes. We can bring that back and we can let them know the behind the scenes and we can go into detail because I think a lot of people maybe we haven't been informative, maybe? Yeah, maybe we haven't been too. It's not targeted towards us though.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

It's more just like In general. In general, it's kind of I wouldn't say like frustrating. It's sad, you know, how people don't understand the behind the scenes of an event coordinator.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

I don't know. As event coordinators, or from speaking from my opinion, I think that I understand where small businesses come from. They put a lot of effort, money into their business, and there's a lot of things that are their costs, whether it's their profit, whether it's more uh their marketing, their packaging, their setups. I understand the costs and expenses that they have, but a lot of businesses, small businesses don't understand the costs and expenses we have.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

I think as a small business, um a lot of small businesses are starting a lot more, I've seen, are coming into for some reason it's like a off-season on season for businesses. We get a lot of new vendors because of summer. Yeah, and then we uh a lot of vendors stop because of summer and they start up in winter. Yeah, because of the water. Well it's like this yeah, on and off season. But a lot of um uh vendors are coming into the market world, they're starting, and um I think that's where it's kind of a hard situation because there's two different types of events. There's the uh illegal ones that uh don't pull anything at all. That it's kind of like under the under the rug kind of thing. I like to call them pop-ups.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

Yes. Because they are like uh basically a one-day pop-up. Yeah. They just they don't have to really put uh money or a lot of effort in it because it's just a it pops up and then it it goes.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

And then there's the markets who are um are do pay the markets and events. Yeah, markets and events. So there's the two difference, and I think that's where a lot of vendors uh get them kind of confused, maybe. I've seen controversy on that also.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Really?

SPEAKER_01 18:54

With the whole confusion of we'll ask for licenses and uh permits, we got shut down, health department uh shut our event down. I mean it's going been going on for years, honestly. We we went through.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

So we were doing smaller pop-ups, backyard pop-ups, uh even like anniversary pop-ups that happen at um their business.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah, so that's something that we were more in because we didn't want to pay the fees, the high fees. We didn't wanna we weren't ready for that route, the licensing route, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Yes, but then we kind of but to cut you off, that's where people get confused, is because okay, I have experience doing a pop-up, a small backyard pop-up, and their fee is sixty dollars. I am expecting to pay sixty dollars for a street closure. And that's where we're coming in today to explain to you the difference and the expenses that we pay as a legal and legit market.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Yes. So when we say legal and legit, we're not shitting on anybody or talking No, we're not. It's more of we have the licensing, we do have the LLC, we have the City of Las Vegas license, Clark County license, um what else? We don't have North Las Vegas. We haven't touched those, but you're like talking to yourself right now. I was like, which ones do we have? And then we have um our um promoter's license. Yes. So that's what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

That's one of the first things that we were told to get, actually. Uh, was to get a promoter's license if you want to do markets anywhere because any uh any location will and venue will ask for it. Yeah. But I guess they don't ask for it. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

It's like a lot of I don't know. When we started the whole market, it was like a lot of things we didn't know about half of the stuff that we were gonna get ourselves into.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

Because we were expecting we had experience with backyard pop-ups. Yeah, so we were like, it's gonna be easy. And we thought from seeing them, okay, sixty dollars, that's pretty reasonable, but we didn't think where was the sixty dollars going.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

So that's like more detail, and that's why we say uh legal. Legal meaning we pay city permits, so it's like legalized from city. Yeah, city is approving it, and legit market is because these permits are going to city and going to like legit reasons.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yeah. So that's where it's kinda yeah, it's a hard situation.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

So I wrote a list today and I want to explain to you guys so you guys have a little bit more experience, so you guys know what a market should be using this vendor fee for. So let's say you're paying a hundred or more to go to a market. That money is gonna go to these places for

SPEAKER_01 22:00

us for us for any other maybe um bigger market yeah that charges that much yes so a lot of people assume that the vendor fee is going to your 10 by 10 space that is just the ground like you're just paying for the spot but that doesn't that's not what it means it means that you're paying uh that fee that you're paying a percentage of it goes to city permits and licensing like we've talked about many times um it's either about temporary event permits street closure permits health department permits depending if you're like a food TFE um the fire department same thing um depending on the county that you're in we do have to pay for a fire and then as our market we do pay your guys' uh city license which is the ten dollars so if you don't have that city license that starts with G7 or I think it's G7 I don't know at the top of my head if you don't have that we cover it for you because you guys are a small business yes so that's what it covers like going into more debt I deal with the permits the licensing part so like for a street closure it's kind of uh there's barricades involved we have to deal with fire department things like that so it's a little bit more money into that with the street closure and then listing that there's event insurance so that's liability for liability insurance that protects uh vendors attendees the property owners and then organizers if someone is injured or a property is damaged.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

So we cover that on our end but then we also cover our street closures and barricades um we cover those so that because right now in the world that we live in we don't know if a car is going to round through the event while you guys are set up or while there's attendees walking around. So for safety reasons we have to put these orange barricades up and these barricades are filled up by a big truck a different company that comes a big truck that carries big water tanks big water big water tank and they fill up the the barricades. It's like crazy to think about it because it's something that no one ever thinks about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

And then going into that we also have our venue rental so well you forgot signage also for the barricades for the street closure we also have like three streets down two streets over of signage that's a special event because you have to let the the nearby people know that the street is closed.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Yes so that's money to an extra yeah um and then we have the venue rental so whether if it's a parking lot whether it's a park whether it's a plaza whether you're an indoor venue or a street closure everything costs money. Nothing in this world is free we have to pay our rent to and depending on the location or depending on the venue the rent varies.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Um we also have security that's our number one thing we've been seeing that a lot of other markets um are getting products stolen or um even their money their cash box is stolen something like that so security is like really important including where your location is if it's day night it's just important in general so we pay for a professional team that comes and it keeps our vendors feel safe our our whole event just be safe um next is the marketing and advertising we pay for social media ads I'm not sure if you come across our ads before probably on Instagram uh we pay for the flyers being posted we pay for photocotographer um videographer we have a like um specific person who does that now um we don't pay for any influencer collaborations we haven't done that before I think we've tried working deals out but it just didn't work for us we're willing to um collaborate in the future we just haven't got to it we pay for printing for banners any like physical promoting materials yeah like the tote bags uh the DTF prints that go on the tote bags which is a monthly thing that we do which now it's gonna be three times a month three times a month but that and then also like we ended up getting uh ourselves we got the heat presser yeah so I because we don't want to pay that extra money because it does get a little cost any penny we can save yeah so I ended up figuring out a heat presser and I just heat press myself.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

So she'll take the the seven the Sunday no it's now it's like literally a Monday and a Tuesday. Yeah so that's hard.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

So we also pay for entertainment just like DJs um any activities workshops um any photo opportunities so if you guys see monthly that we do like a photo drop we pay unless it's a collaboration then that's awesome but not in in all cases it's not like that. Yeah um we used to pay for stuff like tables but we end up buying tables and just smart but then we're like damn we shouldn't have done that we should just smart to like save money in a way that we don't have to rent tables, chairs because it did add up it was like a hundred and something a month and we're like do we need that or do we just invest in it long term and save that money. So money wise it's smart but it's hard because we're the ones three of us, my mom is one down.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Three of us are the only ones packing up the U-Haul. Of course we have our team to help unload it at the event but we're the ones to pack up the loop to pack the U Haul and then unpack. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Yeah so that was kind of so like those little things or d decorations you guys see a couple times like the hay on the middle the banners black things what else props that we decide to do um stuff little things like that that we guys should see our storage.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Yes we have every holiday in there for you guys. We pay for um different things we pay for um even like it goes down to little things so like we paid for the extension covers. Yeah. So like for safety reasons nobody trips over it we pay for little things like we provide our own trash cans. That's something that I don't know if any other event does that.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

We have like eight trash cans. My dad spray painted them so we have we wanted to label them um and then we pay but then we clean those yeah we clean them which my dad does because me and my sister start gagging because we get disgusted.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Guys guys don't know what a trash can is you guys don't know when to throw trash away it's like if you see that there's no trash bag maybe just don't throw it away in there but somehow food always gets the bottom and we start gagging and it's just a whole ordeal. And then okay I'm not done there. We have let's see what else we used to pay for cones but we don't have to anymore. That was at the Fantastic that we used to pay for them. But now we pair the barricades barricades. Um we used to pay for the restrooms portable but depending on the venue you don't have to if they have a bathroom um we're going to have to pay a dumpster rental for Western because they don't have yeah a dumpster um what else? Uh the staff we have staff the staff he got to pay them of course for the staff going into like detail about the staff um even though we like have our um crew members helping out there um we are we also are out there too we handle stuff as well we're not just sitting back our staff helps with the setting up heavy duty we do have one staff member that helps with the check in check-in and like doing like the little things but we handle the main check-in we handle the street check-in um we check on vendors ourselves so we are not gone you'll see us walking you'll see us red out there um and then we I guess it's just the time now and then emergency cost if you if there's any emergency last minute um cancellations that we have to focus on extra staffing unexpected city requirements that happen sometimes um just like the barricades that was unexpected we didn't know we had to fill them up so that was like an added expense that we just found out um and then we have our own personal stuff that we have of subscriptions like cap cut little things that we have to pay the storage unit canva um bookkeeping we have our accounting services we had to pay for our business license to update it I believe yeah every year I believe yeah yeah so it's like uh we have to pay for the promoter's license to update it too city licensing like every six months I believe and then like the entitlement when we went through that for the parking lot um it's just like a bunch of stuff behind the scenes a lot of permits that we have to pay for on our end with city and then other than costs it's like time um timely things that we do on our side that don't cost anything but we still put the time in and effort so like creating the Canva flyers um that's something me and Samantha do for each event um we uh create all promotion marketing every A-frame that you see there every banner everything is just created by us too um we s pick the we do the vendor layout yeah so we mi we are considered in a way that we wouldn't want vendors who sell candles or baked goods to be facing the sun. Yes. It's just something that we've always done and we're gonna continue doing because it's just not right. So the way that we coordinate and place vendors is very like strategic in a way. Can't place vendors too close that's all the same thing. Um it's just like everything we do and we've said it many times we put so much effort and detail into every little thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

Yeah we do we do because at the end of the day we don't want I guess you don't want like a bad thing on you. We want to just be organized kind of thing. You don't want people to be like well they don't care where we put them or well we have to pick our own spot ourselves or it's a first come first serve. I think we tried once doing first come first serve and it was just chaotic.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

I think also it's not being organized, it's just doing what is right.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Like you're not gonna we would it that's just this the type of people we are we're not gonna put a candle vendor facing directly in the sun. Yeah. Because it to us it's not right. We wouldn't want to be put there as a vendor so why would we do it to someone else?

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah so that's where it kind of all these fees go into place and kind of shows like why we charge what we charge. I don't think we charge that much we're we're pretty competitive. We are pretty competitive um so that's that but we also I forgot what I was gonna say again.

SPEAKER_00 33:27

Oh my god I'm like losing it today but yeah that's basically my notes I wrote that's everything that we charge I don't know if I'm missing anything if we do I'll do an update next time no you pretty much covered everything that's pretty much all that we yeah that we handle on our end. Honestly if we could we would go on here and tell you like the budget like the pricing we spend on any everything but we're just we're not gonna do that. Yeah that's well that's just like we're not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

But that kind of shows you like the behind the scenes so when uh it is kind of like um when we hear like these stories and these people why are they charging a hundred not this much or why aren't they giving free doing a free event it is kind of hurtful because it's like we as a market can understand we're putting so much time and effort and money into it. And it's just we're vendors are confused and they're like well am I paying this much here but for you guys I'm paying this much.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Yeah like their expectations are high when or I don't know how to explain it but I get what you're saying. Yeah. I just feel like there's this theory going around that we don't support the community because our vendor prices are high. And I think it's unfair to have that that theory you know like no one's ever in someone else's position and knows what's exactly going on or the behind the scenes to even say that. Just like when they say that we're stealing money. That's like a broad statement a broad claim that's um a very unfair claim. We've never stolen we'll never stole money I don't I think that's illegal. You can't do that. Yeah. Um what we have done is we don't do refunds.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Yeah so we just what I was gonna say yes is getting into that um to kind of in depth with that our um refund policy or what? Uh our um what's the thing that is on our applications that says everything it's not a I don't like saying contract because it's not terms and conditions. Yeah terms and conditions a lot of people are not happy with the terms and conditions. We've made a like a podcast about it that a lot of people don't read our terms and conditions and um that's like something that is stated everywhere is like we're not gonna do refunds. Uh just because it is not fair to ask for a refund the day before the event.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

Well not even if it's a day let's say you give us a week in advance we pay those permits the week the week or two weeks before we have to everything's prepared in advance. We don't just pop up. It's like everything we put so much effort um so much everything's already costly it's just a hard position for you guys to ask us now can we have a refund? We understand there's uh uh circumstances we understand that there's situations that are unexpected that you can't control so we are sympathetic towards you guys but at the same time we do ask for that sympathy in return to understand where we're coming from why we can't offer that refund.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

To like piggyback on that when we started when we started the market we were doing refunds and a lot of people were coming up with you know telling us well I had a family passing I had this I had that and then for some reason we would do the refund but then we would go on their story and they wouldn't have a family passing.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

They would be in California or they would be in a different market.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Or they would be at F1.

SPEAKER_00 36:57

Yeah that's one example. Or sometimes sometimes there's those situations where we have to kick out vendors. Yeah and we don't like to kick out vendors um but we have to because maybe they're being rude to us and why would we it's like that it's like a s a storefront guys if you go into a restaurant they have the right to to refuse it's called the right of refusal. Yeah right of the right to refuse service to anyone we have the same ability the same option just because we're not gonna take disrespect or rudeness from people um there is one vendor specifically that did say that there wanted a refund we offered the transfer he didn't want to because he was moving out of town or something.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

He wanted a specific date. Yes and we were like we are completely booked with vintage like we can't take any more at all.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

So then we offered those transfers he said no he's gonna put a dispute and we were like whoa like why why are you doing that? We're offering other another date. But he wanted his way not considering the things that we already paid for things that we are offering not considering our side of the story. Yeah. And this vendor is still going on about it because we didn't want to do a refund saying that we stole money out of his pocket.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

Which we didn't steal money it's we offer you you don't take you throw a fit it's not stealing at the end. It's because you just you're throwing a fit because you didn't get the day you want. Mm-hmm which that's not how it works.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Yeah so it's just like we wanted to just come on here and talk to you guys, tell you in depth I hope that's like in depth enough of the things uh expenses and costs that we go through so you guys understand why our vendor fees are high like you guys are saying but also to understand the effort that we go through, we put in I think a lot of you guys forget that and I think we wanted to just share that.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

There's a lot of behind the scenes that a lot of people don't know about I wish we can we were supposed to do like I wish we can do like the daily life of in debt like to show you guys like the messages the questions the the hard decisions that we as an organizer have to make. That's I think that's the more stressful part on top of the fees and these um expenses are the decisions that we have to do. Because if um like for example if we do kick somebody out that's a dis a hard decision we have to do. It's not because we want to or because we're heartless it's because we have to think okay if they are being rude already what's the next step? Are they gonna be rude again? So that's a hard decision that we have to do.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

But not even when it comes to kicking out let's say when it comes to like little things that we have to make decisions on. Yeah. Each decision is hard. Um I think that a lot of people don't agree or don't believe that we have to go by what other vendors feel comfortable with and vendor feedback. If we're getting multiple complaints or multiple feedback saying they feel like something is not right or unfair we're gonna listen to that feedback and go with it to handle a certain situation.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Yeah. Yeah and that's where that goes into also it's it's just a lot behind the scenes honestly. Yeah it is it is we love what we do we're not gonna lie this is you know I think that's why we put so much effort and so much love into this market because we love it. We love 702 market.

SPEAKER_00 40:34

I think if we didn't care about the market and we're all about money we wouldn't be putting and continuing to put effort in our market. I mean from day one we've been putting effort in our flyers if we didn't care about it the flyers would not be there anymore. Yeah they would not show the love and effort we do put in it. So it's just like little details like that like you guys will tell okay they're they're for the community but also they do love their market and it's not just about money.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Yeah we're not but that's yeah that sums it up of of event coordinator and what we do for you. And you guys probably aren't gonna listen and not care but we just felt like we needed to share yeah kind of show like behind the scenes of this is like in depth like what we do what we pay and how it is. So hopefully this wasn't too boring. Probably was but it was more informative like Sabrina's been saying to kind of give you guys like a feel like behind the scenes again a reminder like who we are what 702 Market is kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Yeah I think um a refresh we needed to do that I think sometimes people forget like who's who we are like you said. So this hopefully this episode kind of help refresh your head.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Yes. But finishing it off what do you think I was gonna ask you a question. What have you what can you say that you've learned like probably since the last time we've talked to them is there any lessons that you can give to them any advice pieces of advice heart to heart?

SPEAKER_00 42:19

Uh I've learned that um social media is a scary place. Like it's it's very like I don't know how to explain it without my words being twisted or being taken out of context but a lot of people don't understand that even though you're commenting or you're messaging online that these comments and messages get to a person, a real person. And these real people have feelings and they have whatever they're going through and it just sucks that everyone's so negative. Yeah. Like everyone should be uplifting each other should be happy but we live in a world that there's bad things going on constantly so why do we need to add negativity to it? You know that's one thing I've learned is that social media is a scary place. I mean we wouldn't be where we are without social media because that's like our number one advertising platform but it's just there's there's the positive and the negative there's just those days where you just don't want to be on social media and you want to just take a break because it's like well I know a lot of people that don't even go on TikTok or don't have Instagram so it's like I understand where they're coming from now. Yeah. Sometimes it's overwhelming just seeing how negative and how many how much how many people complain.

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Yeah, plain and simple. Not even complain, I think it's more like how many people jump on the bandwagon And f spread false information. Spread false claims. Things like that. It's just negativity all around. Very negative.

SPEAKER_00 44:09

So you okay. So that's something you learn.

SPEAKER_01 44:13

Something I've learned. That's hard. Because that's pretty much something, yeah. I've learned that with you also about social media. I don't like social media. I mean, I've said it on another podcast episode that per me personally, I don't like on I'm not really on Instagram. Followers and all that stuff is not important to me. Yeah. Um something I've learned is even three years later, four years later, five years later, no one's gonna be perfect.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

That's something I've learned is you still are learning. No one can come and say that they're perfect, that they've never done anything wrong, they've never made a mistake. Made a mistake in their life. That's something I've learned. I mean I've learned before, but No, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

I feel like everyone expects because we're market organizers, we should have everything like everything perfect and everything what's the word? Picture perfect? No, like everything um like a certain way. They have like certain expectations for us and they forget that and we're always saying this. We're people. Yeah, we're humans. They think that we're not human and that we don't have feelings, and they think that we're heartless or greedy or bitches. Bitches or the list goes on. We're no one. But it's just like they have this certain idea of us without even meeting us, and it's unfair. Mm-hmm. And that goes into social media again. Yeah. It's like there's always two sides to every story.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

I think that's something that people um I think learning growing up, that's something that we can always stick by, is that there's always two sides to the story. We've always been taught that. Um to always make sure to find out before you believe somebody.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:18

Find out the other side of the story, and that's something our parents taught us is like, hey, you can't quickly judge a person. Judge a person by the cover because of somebody. Like get to know that person, ask that person for questions, have your own experience.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

So that's something that we can say that we stand on um and that we've been taught. But I think like you said, um taking sides is like a huge lesson also that we've learned. Like a lot of people we've seen a lot of people don't take sides, like how do you word it? Like um, a lot of people take sides without listening to the story. Like you said. Okay. But I think when it comes to that, the world does turn around. I feel like if you are that person who is, you know, believing that person who cries wolf. And when the world turns around on you and you cry wolf and you get mad that nobody's believing you, how do you think that person that other person felt when you didn't hear their story out? Yeah. And you ignored them.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

That's a good, what is that, analogy?

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, that's something that I've learned. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

That was pretty good. That was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

I thought it wasn't making sense, but I'm like, this isn't making sense. They're gonna be cut. It makes sense to me though. Yes. That's what counts. Yes. But yeah, hopefully you guys like this episode.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

Well, before we like uh shut it down, we do want to say like a prayer and hopefully everyone's okay in Venezuela or anyone being affected by the earthquakes right now. By the fires, it's like too much going on in the world, it's kind of scary. So hopefully everyone is safe and even right now this weekend, hopefully you guys were safe. Yes. I know that a lot of people had asthma or respiratory problems. So hopefully you guys stayed home or your asthma didn't flare up.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

Yes, but yes, like my sister said, prayer to them. Um and then go Mexico because they won the World Cup.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

World Cup. They won one of them. Yeah, they won one. I'm not a soccer. Yeah. Don't quote us. We just see TikToks where it's like, yeah, we're like, okay, yeah, support them. But that's what I heard.

SPEAKER_01 48:39

Yes, we're yeah. But um yeah, hopefully you guys like this episode and yeah, thank you for hanging out with us today. Catch you guys on the flip side.

SPEAKER_00 48:50

Yeah, we should do a quote each time. See you later, Alexander. Before I was gonna like close.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Oh sorry, just ignore her. So thank you guys for hanging out with us today. Make sure you support local, you shop small, and yeah, we'll see you on the next episode of Semino Tea Cheesement, which is our next vendor podcast. So you guys will yes, it is. Oh, okay. It's every other week. Every other week.

SPEAKER_00 49:18

Oh, okay. But this one will be coming out Wednesday.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Yes, and then in two weeks, it's the vendor. Oh my god. Whatever, guys. Next one will be the vendor.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

Yes. So you don't want to miss any of those. Grand opening, a Latina theme, and then Summer Ween. Yes. So do your little ending. See you. Damn it. Catch you guys later. See you later, alligator. Is there nothing yet to say it in a while, crocodile?