Sound & Fury: Our First Bake Sale

Hi there. So Kelly and I decided to drive up to Oxnard for the Sound and Fury Festival this weekend and try our hands at our first bake sale. Over the course of about 16 hours, we hand-assembled almost two hundred cookies (oatmeal white chocolate chip cranberry, and chocolate raspberry “brownie” cookies) and six dozen donuts (cookies and cream with cookies and cream glaze, red velvet with cream cheese icing, and cinnamon streusel). Six dozen! The donuts were packaged in little boxes - three donuts to a box. Limited edition fest-only box sets. Hand numbered, signed, and sealed with pink obi-strips. (That’s what happens when you combine a layout nerd, with a baker, and a record nerd. I’m glad the baked goods tasted yummy, but the packaging and labeling was truly outstanding. I really pride myself on presentation.) There were only 13 boxes for sale when all was said and done - almost half of the original six dozen just went to friends - and the rest sold like hot cakes. Well, not really hotcakes, but quickly enough after word of mouth got out that they were available.

The cookies sold at a moderately steady pace for most of the day, but we didn’t sell out of those. And oatmeal was really outselling chocolate for a while, but then that trend totally reversed itself in the evening.

Notes for next bake sale:
1. Offer samples
2. Make a big sign

We were seated at the React! Records table (thanks Aram!) which totally brought us a lot of foot traffic since our signage was severely lacking. Also, I don’t think it was a huge vegan crowd? But the baked goods are scrumptious no matter what your dietary leanings may be. Aram was also great and rallying customers as well as Kelly. Kelly proved herself to be an outstanding saleswoman. Low-cut blouse with plenty of cleavage? Check. Adorable pout and tried and tested sales pitch? Check. I really think it doubled our sales. So thanks Kels.

I bought myself a mini netbook for my birthday, so I figured we would blog from the Fest, but that was sort of naive, as there was no wireless connection there. Why would there be? It’s not a Starbucks. Anyway, Kelly and I typed a ton, and what you see here will be a barrage of thoughts and musings from the fest. Posted to our blog in a span of minutes, but these are writings and thoughts that occurred over a 24 hours period. We just didn’t have internet access to post them until now. So enjoy.