Snowflakes

I could debate all day long the pros and cons of putting things in your booth that are not for sale.  Both sides have valid arguments.  As for me, I was a middle of the fence girl.    Sometimes I just liked adding a few not-for-sale little details simply because it made me happy.  So, from that point of view, take a look at these pretty snowflakes -

Source: Bugs and Fishes

These were made for a kitchen window in a home, but they could really pretty in a booth.  Even though you would be spending time on something that is not for sale, in the end, it could help you with other sales.  I truly believe that better booth decor makes what you are selling look more appealing.

 If you have a nicely decorated booth,

you can generally ask (and get) 

MORE for your items 

than those with booths that  

look "thrift store-ish".

Christmas is over.  It's winter.  Have some fun with it.  If your booth is in a warm state, this look would go over even better.  I live in Georgia, and around here, most people long for a good snow every winter.  Everything comes to a halt when it snows here.  Paper snowflakes are happy reminders that maybe, just maybe, we'll have a good snow this year.

If you have creative kids, teenagers, or young-at-heart helpers around, you might get them busy on this project.

 I love how these are grouped in front of a window, but a window is not necessary.

They would look especially pretty in a booth devoted to whites and neutrals.  And maybe a few silver things and things that sparkle.  Very wintery!

They'd take on a whole other fun look in a colorful booth.

Look for more booth tips on the Vintage Show Off Facebook page.

Booth Sign From Coathangers

I'm definitely in favor of giving a booth a name.  A name is much easier for customers to remember than the typical booth numbers or codes used to track sales at Antique malls.  If a customer sees something they like in your booth and wants to come back to it later, a memorable booth sign might help them remember your booth.

This is just a quick (and cheap) idea I found on Pinterest. The instructions are in Chinese, but it looks easy enough to figure out.

I hope to include more ideas for booth signs over time.  Have you subscribed to email updates yet?  Are you following along on the Vintage Show Off Facebook page?

Source 

It's Not Nice to Fool Your Customers

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature OR Customers!   Be honest and upfront about important flaws in your merchandise.

Years ago, I bought a table at a vintage mall. I looked the table over from an upright position, but didn't crawl around on the floor or look up under it.  It wasn't until I got home that I saw there were major hidden structural issues and the leaf that came with it didn't work at all.  What a lesson.

The tag did not say "as is".  There were no notes about the issues.

You could argue that I was buying a vintage table and should expect wear and tear.  I should have looked better.  I should have insisted on seeing the table set up with the leaf in place.  I should have crawled up under the table and examined everything.  Seriously?  How many customers would do all of that?

I my humble opinion, the vendor did a very bad thing for herself AND for the store.  She destroyed trust.

In our business (as in used car sales) an omission is basically a lie.  When a customer feels they've been lied to, they likely won't buy from that vendor again.  Worse, they may feel the whole store is dishonest and may not come back to the store at all.  I'm always shocked at how many customers don't realize that an antique mall is made of of lots of booths run by different people.  They don't consider that some vendors are more reliable than others.  When they form opinions, they lump the entire store together.

Honesty is the best policy!

If you take the time to point out flaws that may not be noticed 'til a purchase is made AND mark your price accordingly, the customer can decide if it's a flaw they can live with and they may still make the purchase.  Furthermore, having the flaw noted builds trust.

Update: One of the commenters to this post had a very good point.  Sometimes things get broken in a booth and the guilty customer just sneaks the item back on the shelf and doesn't tell a soul.  It can sit on a shelf like that for ages before the vendor sees that it's damaged.  But if you KNOW about a flaw, you'll be better off in the long run to be up front about it.

Can A Yard Sale Be More Profitable Than a Show?

I have seen a number of comments from people about doing monthly or seasonal shows on the side.  I plan to do posts about shows in the future.  This post is not one of them.  This post is to introduce an alternative idea - VENDOR yard sales.

An Example from Someone With Lots of Experience
About a year ago, I had an interesting conversation with a booth vendor who is VERY VERY good.  Her booth is always one of my favorites.  Her things sell, even when she prices them above the going rate of others in her store.  I asked her about her experience at Scott Antique Market.  Scott is a huge, very popular monthly market in Atlanta.

She said she did OK there - and she gave me a very impressive number.  But she said she didn't do Scotts anymore.  Instead, she did yard sales a couple of times a year.  She said her last yard sale earned her around [the amount was staggering] and was much less of a hassle than doing a show.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.

This vendor is part of a two lady vendor team.  They have been working the booth scene for a number of years.  They have a distinct look - quirky vintage with lots of industrial.  They find the most amazing things - Pickers, Mike and Frank, would be proud.  My point here is that they have the merchandise to support those kind of sales.

Also, they have built up a yard sale reputation.  People who yard sale regularly recognize their  listings and make a point of going over.  The prices are not typical low yard sale prices, but they are offering goods that are not typical yard sale goods.

I offer this story up as another venue to consider.  You may not make a small fortune in a day, but a yard sale might still be a worthwhile way to add to your profits.  You don't have to put all your eggs in one basket booth!

Other Vendors Have Done This
Here are a few examples I found rather quickly online -

Vintage Farmhouse

Fresh Vintage

Consider Teaming Up For a Yard Sale
You might take it a step further and have a yard sale with several vendor friends. A multi-vendor sale would attract more traffic than a single person sale.

Location would be a key consideration.  It would need to be in a convenient, well-traveled location with plenty of room.  If someone had a big barn or outbuilding, that would be grand - it could be set up in a covered location over several days time without worry over the weather.  If a building is not available, each vendor could use a covered booth tent and set it up almost like a booth at an outdoor show.  The sale would need to be heavily advertised in papers and Craigslist, preferably with links to a Facebook page.  Photos could be uploaded before the event showing some of the items that would be for sale.

This would be great to do regularly - 2 or 3 times a year.  People could be told to watch on Facebook for upcoming sales.  The first sale or two might be so-so, but once a reputation is established, it might become an event.

For a sale like this, there would be little overhead.  No commission.  No booth rental fees.  Yard sale-ers know the cash only rule, so there would be no charge fees.

Antique Malls Parking Lot Sales
Many malls have outdoor yard sales a couple of times a year.  They take place outside the store and spaces are rented - usually for a minimal amount of money.  It attracts more customers to the store. It give vendors a way to sell off stale merchandise.  Vendors may also choose to offer up some items that haven't even made it to the booth yet.  The advertising is generally done by the store, so this can be a relatively easy option.

Source

Booth vendors often look for additional ways to add to their income.  This is just another venue to consider.  

You Called it a WHAT???

Be careful what you call an item on your price tag.  Your fancy item name may actually cause a customer to rethink a possible purchase.  Let me explain.

In the example above, the tag specifies that the desk is for ladies.

Booth vendors are generally creative people.  We love re-purposing things.  We could care less what an item is called. We'll buy an item and use it any way we choose.

Not all of our customers are like that.  Many are far more timid when it comes to decorating.  Some are afraid to buy anything but a bedroom suite because they don't have the confidence to put different pieces together.

Our more timid customers might see that desk and, at first glance, think it would look nice in their home office.  But when they look at the tag to check the price, the word ladies might make them worry that the desk is too feminine.  Maybe it wouldn't work for the family after all.  No sale.

A nice name is wonderful.  Details are nice.  But be very careful about not using a name that will limit a buyer's imagination.

A couple of other examples that come to mind (because I've seen them used recently) are "gentleman's chest" and "youth desk".  I recently saw "youth desk" used on a tag for a normal sized desk that most anyone could use.

PS - I kept thinking that "ladies desk" should actually be "lady's desk".  I did a quick search and saw both ways used.  "Ladies" seemed to be use a little more and I saw it used by a few companies that surely knew their stuff, so that's what I used.  If anyone sees a definitive answer, I'd love to know!

Screen Door Displays

Doors are great for maximizing booth space.  They look great, take up very little space, can create a division between booths, and they can be used to display small items attractively!

First, how to keep them upright...   In this first example, decorative wrought iron shelf brackets were used.

Photo found on Pinterest - with no source link.

I used doors in my booth.  The photo below was taken before I had them in place.  I used L brackets.  The pretty white wrought iron brackets in the above photo are more attractive, but L brackets still have a slight advantage.  When placing furniture in front of the doors, you don't have to work around the curly-q's and scrolls that stick out.  My L brackets were 6 inch ones and the doors never fell over.  Still, if I had it to do over, I think I'd use 8 or 10 inch brackets just to give me more piece of mind.

Screen doors offer all sorts of display opportunities.  If the screen is a tight wire version, you can hang lightweight items like jewelry or ornaments.  If it's heavy wire or metal, you can use S hooks and hang all sorts of things.

Source

Source

You can also add hooks to the wood parts to hang even more.  In the earlier photo of my green and blue doors, you can see I attached coat hooks. I hung wreathes and signs and all sorts of decor from those hooks.  In the photo below, the attached screw-in hooks offer a whole different range of possibilities.  I believe this example is for home decor, but it can easily be incorporated for booth use.

Source - Beyond the Picket Fence
I found this link on Pinterest, but it didn't lead to the exact post.  No matter.
This is a great blog that you should browse through for all sorts of ideas!
Heather actually lives pretty close to me and I see her from time  to time.  She's soooo nice!

Want more door inspiration?  My Pinterest board, Door-able, is devoted to all things doors.  There are loads of door ideas there.  Enjoy!

The Scariest Post I'll Ever Write

I hope this isn't the first post you read on The Vintage Show Off site!  This information is certain to touch off nerves and anyone not ready for this closer look at the financial side of being a vendor might never visit this site again.

DO NOT READ THIS POST UNTIL YOU ARE TRULY READY.  I have plenty of fun articles about booth decor and so forth.  The article is depressing most of the way through, but there is hope.  Vendors CAN be successful.  Examining where your money goes might help you see where you can save and increase profits.  If you really want to improve your bottom line, you should eventually read this post. Many vendors are not in it for the money.  If you are just having fun and for the most part, could care less about the money, feel free to avoid this article forever.

When I first worked this all out, I was shocked and amazed at my findings. I assumed that all my vendor friends would be interested and that we could all work together to figure out how to increase our profits.  WRONG!   Most of them avoided looking at my spreadsheets as if they had lethal bacteria on them.  I'm not joking.  I learned quickly that this information is not for everyone.  And I really do understand that.  Most of the vendors who avoided it were having fun.  This info is a bit of a buzz kill.

The vendors most interested are those who are wondering if they should stay in the business OR vendors who are VERY serious about trying to make more money.  Those in it just for the joy KNOW they probably shouldn't examine their profits too closely. 

Are you sure you want to keep reading?  Ok, then, here goes...

Since vintage goods are so popular, antique malls are popping up all over and being a vendor at one of them seems like a cool thing to do.  It seems so easy and fun at first glance.  Once you're in it, you realize that it takes a bit more work than anticipated, but it's definitely fun.  Few vendors think they are getting rich, but most think they're doing OK.

The biggest misconception I see - many vendors believe that the bigger the check from the mall, the more money they are making.  Sorry.  I beg to differ.  The monthly (or bi-monthly) check is NOT how you gauge your success!

Here is an example month for a fictitious vendor named  Matilda.

Matilda gets her check at the end of the month.  She grossed $2000. Woo-hoo! (For most vendors in a mall, that's a pretty good month. Many, many many vendors have NEVER ONCE grossed that much.

There are a few deductions already taken out.  The 10% store commission was $200.  The extra fee for all sales made with a charge card was $18 (actually a pretty low estimate on a $2000 month).  So the real check amount is $1782.  Matilda is thrilled.  Unfortunately, that's not her real profit.

Matilda's rent is $200 a month.  That leaves $1582.

Many vendors don't think beyond this. Ignorance is bliss.

There are plenty more not so obvious expenses.

For purposes of this example, we'll say that Matilda prices everything at double her cost ON AVERAGE.  (If she buys a chair for $10, she sells it for $20.)  So, we'll say she spent $1000 on her $2000 worth of sales.  Uh-oh. That leaves just $582 profit for the month.  That's a little sad for a check that looked so nice, but unfortunately, there's more to consider.

Most vendors are on the road a great deal finding those bargains.  Very few sell things that require no running around.   Gas money must be considered. And there are supplies to consider as well. Matilda paints and "fixes up" many of her furniture pieces.  Paint, sandpaper, new hardware, light bulbs, price tags, fabric, staples, markers, tools, etc.  A little here, a little there -  it all adds up!   Matilda spent around $200 for gas and supplies for the month.  Her profit is now $382.

Wait!  There's more.

• Federal and state taxes.  All vendors are supposed to do this.  I paid my taxes and kept my records.  'Nuf said about that.
• Accountant fees.  Even though you probably won't show much of a profit on paper, your accountant still has to be paid and just because you made no money doesn't mean they shouldn't either.
• Theft and breakage.  It happens.     
• Price reductions on things that sit in your booth too long.  (I'll never try to sell another coffee table.)
• Price reductions on things customers talk you down on.
• Some things don't sell at all.  You take a loss or in some cases, give up and take it to Goodwill.  Even long time vendors make mistakes.
• Things you give to people you love.  I never really minded that, but it still needs to be taken into consideration when figuring profits.
• Possible doctor bills - many vendors end up with shoulder, neck, back, and/or knee issue.  Eight out of ten of the vendors I know best went to the doctor during the last 2 years from something directly related to their booth business.
• Months when your sales are really low yet you still have expenses.

So now you are at $382, minus whatever you came up with for those last bits.  Matilda figured out what she spent for a year on those extra things and then came up with a monthly average of $150.  That's definitely the figure I feel least confident about.  For some, it will be much lower.  For others much higher.  I also feel sure I am leaving out some incidental expenses.

Matilda's true profit on $2000 worth of sales is $232.  $232 measly dollars for all that TIME and effort!  $232 earned when the check was $2000.

Speaking of TIME, notice that hasn't been figured in.

Matilda spent time:

• Working at the store - many stores require you to work at the store a day or two or else pay someone else for your day/s.  Stores that don't require you to work usually charge a little more in rent. 
• Riding all over creation looking for treasures.  
• Cleaning, painting, and re-doing.  
• Making tags and pricing everything and writing everything down so she'd have good records for her taxes.  
• Hauling things.  Hauled them home to work on them.  Hauled them to the store. Sometimes, she hauled them back home again - seasonal items or items that weren't selling and needed to be worked over.  
• Running over to her booth to straighten up messes when something big sold.  She rearranged her booth when it looked the same for too long and sales slowed down.  
• Last but not least - she spent loads of time cleaning up the messes she made at home working on all this stuff.  

Matilda figured she spent about 90 hours during the month (an average of 3 hours a day) working on things related to her booth.  232 divided by 90 hours = $2.57 an hour.  At this point, you may want to take a break from reading this post to go get out a hankie or some Pepto-Bismol.

Matilda could spend less time clipping coupons and save her family more than $232 a month.

I came up with the "Matilda" spreadsheet first, but I wasn't content to stop there.  Surely that was just a bad example.   I looked at a few other scenarios, reworked the spreadsheet adjusting figures to give the most accurate estimates I could for each expense and here are the QUICK results on those.

It's so easy in this business to fool yourself into thinking you're doing fine.  It's easy to forget those extra expenses.  Money for things like gas sometimes comes out of your home money (instead of your booth account)...  a little here and a little there.  Your time gets skewed as well. It's easy to lose track of just how much time you spend on things related to your booth.

I'm retired with a decent pension. The money I earned when I had a booth was not crucial.  My goals for having a booth had more to do with decorating my own house and having fun thrifting than anything else.  But since making a profit IS important for many vendors, I decided my findings were worth putting out there for anyone who  it might help.

For anyone reading this who is not a vendor, have a heart when you shop at an antique mall!  Vendors work really hard and put lots of love into all they do.   As you can see here, they are lucky to break even when all is said and done..

I welcome all comments, whether you agree or not. My comments are monitored due to a ridiculous amount of spam, but I'll let on-topic comments be posted as long as there's not something horrendously mean and nasty. I suspect there are plenty of ex-vendors out there who will understand the truth of this post.  My accountant has seen my spreadsheets and she agrees with their validity.

I would especially love to hear from people who played with their own numbers after reading this.  Expenses for each of us is different.  There are lots of variables.

Let's end on a good note -

As depressing as all this may seem, there are ways to make money with a booth.  Some vendors find  a strategy that allows them to acquire things to sell without investing quite as much time and/or quite as much money.  There's no one success formula I can give you.  It all comes to many factors coming together nicely.
Having a booth can be fun!   But make no mistake.  For those who don't really think it through, examine their books and figure out how to improve, it will just be a fun, time-consuming, messy hobby.  For all but a few, it is seldom lucrative.   If you NEED your business to be lucrative, think about where you can save money, where you can save time, where you can sell best...  Examine your bottom line and continually look for ways to improve.

And keep reading 
Vintage Show Off !

Update:   This comment had several valid points that are very worth considering.  I thought they should be added to the article so more people will see them -

My books are even more detailed than the scenarios you used and I can attest to the accuracy of your assessments and comments. I can also attest to how to use different kinds of offerings with different markups in order to maximize whatever profits you can. But here's a vital piece of information you left out. My husband and I use my business as a quasi tax shelter. Much of my business can be written off as a loss. The tax savings is astronomical. We saved over $3000 dollars last year alone. While you may not be making an actual income and profit, for someone approaching or already within retirement that savings to a household might be reflected in what you don't end up paying out to Uncle Sam. My daughters and I also end up with the best of the best in terms of décor.
It's just one more aspect to add to what was a wonderful article that I will definitely be sharing with other vendors. And just one more note. So many people are now doing this "for fun" that they often undercut the prices of people attempting to do this work and make some sort of profit even if just a small one. I wish people would really do the books and stop giving their work away at a loss. It really is impacting my bottom line.

Christmas Wares on Sale

Before I had a booth, I thought it was rather tacky for stores to put out their Christmas things so early. Please!  Wait 'til after Thanksgiving.  I was so wrong.

The first year I had a booth, I held onto those beliefs.  I didn't sell a whole lot of holiday items that year.  I had tons to pack up, even after the Christmas sales were over.

The next year, I had loads of beautiful Christmas treasures. I wanted to make sure they sold.    By the first of November, I had very few Thanksgiving or Fall items left in my booth.  I didn't want to leave my booth looking drab all month, so I decided to jump the gun and bring out all the holiday items.

I put tons of Christmas decor in my booth on Nov 2.

What a surprise!   My Christmas decor sold like hotcakes right away.  They were pretty things, so that was partially the reason they sold so well.  But there was more to it than that.

This was all that was left of my holiday decor by Nov 26.

By Thanksgiving, I didn't have much Christmas decor left.  Some other vendors were just putting out their decor and it was very pretty. Unfortunately they were late. Sales on Christmas items slowed down after Thanksgiving.  What's up with that?

As I unpacked my own things to decorate my home, I had a revelation.  I unpacked lots of my own holiday decor, coming across things I forgot I had.  I felt overwhelmed by my holiday accumulations.  I had enjoyed looking at the holiday things in stores in November, but now, I knew I didn't need to buy ANYTHING else.  I'll bet lots of customers feel that way.

My advice for vendors - put out Christmas items in early November.  This is NOT your home.  This is a business. A business needs to stay ahead of the holidays.  In December, mark down anything that's left ... unless you have plenty of storage space to keep it for the following year.

Don't just listen to me.  Major stores have studied sales practices for years and years.  Lots of high dollar research has gone into the decisions they make about when to put out things.  Vendors can learn from them.

This article is a little late to help you this year, but remember it for next!  As for now, if your Christmas decor isn't on sale, get yourself over to your booth asap and mark down anything you don't want to take back home after Christmas!!!

A Ladder for Display

This first photo is not from a shop.  It's from a lovely home.  Booth inspiration can come from anywhere!  And this photo has several ideas for vendors.

THE LADDER

What first caught my eye in this photo was the ladder with packets hanging from it.  It turns out that it's an Advent Calendar. That's a great idea, but get your mind off that for a moment and think of the booth possibilities.

With some large S hooks, you could hang all sorts of things from a ladder.  You could have a display of all similar items or a hodge podge.  The possibilities are endless.

Photo Source

FLOOR DISPLAY

Another takeaway from this photo are the bottles in the tray under the chair.   Displaying things on the floor can be hit or miss. This bottle display is a hit.

When things are displayed on the floor, the floor needs to be clean.   Even if the booth floor is as clean as the floor in the photo, there are some things you shouldn't put there. For instance, I have a problem with pillows being displayed on shop floors. Eeewww.   Bottles can be easily cleaned.  They are fine.  PLUS, the photo bottles are in a crate, so they don't have actual ground contact, which makes a psychological difference somehow.  The only thing wrong with these bottles as a booth display is that the crate is too large to be easily scooted out for a better look.  But then, this is not really a booth.

An item displayed on the floor must be noticeable.  Will people see it if it's on the floor and under something?  These bottles do stand out and get your attention... as long as you are standing a few feet away.  If they were displayed like this in a tight spot where a viewer only has enough space to stand close to the chair, the chair seat would block the view.  But from a slight distance, a customer could glance there and if they were at all interested in blue bottles, they'd probably be willing to stoop down and take a closer look.

LINEN DISPLAY

One more takeaway from this photo - note how the linen on the top of the stack is tied and has a berry stem tucked in.  Nice touch.  A nice touch like that wouldn't have to be done for every piece of linen being sold.  But adding things like this here and there gives the impression that the items are nice.  It's sad, but true - people are willing to pay a bit more for something purchased in a place that feels high end.  If those same linens were heaped in a cardboard box for people to dig through, they'd expect the price to be really cheap.  Display matters unless you truly are selling at bargain basement / thrift store prices.

The Money Wall

In many stores, there is a path customers typically walk... a direction they follow.  I highly recommend that you learn which direction customers are usually heading when they come to your booth.  Stand off in a distance and observe customers as they walk to your booth. If they come from one particular direction the majority of the time, then whatever part of your booth they see first is what I call "THE MONEY WALL".

The money wall is where you need to create a strong first impression.  You need to use that wall to catch the eye of anyone passing.  It's where you put things that will grab their attention and help lure them into your booth.  If you have a large item that you want to sell, you might want to put it on that wall and make it look fabulous.

This is key - a pretty vignette on your money wall is not enough.  Pretty will get you a glance, but it might not get a customer into your booth.  You have to have special things that customers will want to check out.  A glance is good.  Entering your booth is better.  Picking something up or checking a price tag is best because that's getting much closer to actually making a sale, which, after all, is the main goal.

There are booths all around you competing for attention.  Your booth needs to at least look as good as the others.  If you notice that customers stare longer at the booths around you, you need to step up your game. Or, if they go into surrounding booths more often that yours, you need to step up your game.

Here are some examples of displays that would CREATE A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION.  I tried to include a variety of styles.

Photo Source

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There are tons more  inspiring booth photos on Pinterest.  That's where I found most of these photos.  You can start exploring booth photos on Pinterest (if you haven't already) by taking a look at my Antique Booths board.

Introducing - Vintage Show Off

I've been a booth vendor for a few years.  That's about to come to a screeching halt in 18 days.  I'm closing my booth to focus on the promoting end of the business.  I love to figure out the best way to show off and market vintage items.

I have been promoting online (mostly on Facebook, but also on Craigslist and a blog) for a fun vintage mall in GA for almost the entire time I had a booth there. I'll continue doing that after my booth closes.

I mention the promoting because that gave me the opportunity to study and learn from other vendors in a way few people get to do.  I have tracked what sells and what doesn't and spent lots of time trying to figure out the psychology behind booth sales.  I am constantly trying to figure out why things sell from some booths and similar items are ignored in others.  I have studied which booths customers are drawn in to and which booths they usually walk past.  When vendors ask me for advice, I usually have plenty to say.  No one ever accused me of being too quiet.

I have wanted to figure out a way to help vendors for ages - not just the ones at the store I promote - vendors all over.  

Hopefully, this blog (and the accompanying Facebook page) will become the VENDOR resource I envision.  Being a booth vendor is hard work.  Many customers assume that vendors are laughing all the way to the bank. Nothing could be further from the truth.  Very few vendors earn a decent wage.  (I have several posts planned on that topic!)

Most vendors are in the business because they love it.  I was in the biz, knowing full well I could make more money elsewhere, as a way to make a little money while I decorated my house from vintage finds AND simply to have fun. I shopped for my home while I shopped for my booth!  :-D  Whatever the reason YOU are doing it (or thinking about doing it), you might as well be successful!  I hope I can help.

I don't claim to know it all. I don't claim to be able to make anyone rich. I DO CLAIM that I will do my darned best to share plenty of tips and inspiration for running a successful booth. As this page (and its companion Facebook page) builds, I am hoping that other vendors will post tips as well. I have a funny feeling that this could turn out to be, as Martha would say, "a very good thing"! If you're a vendor, I sure hope you'll come along for the ride!

Sign up for the email list so you don't miss a post!

Update:  After a number of inquiries about my use of the words "screeching halt" and why I wanted to close my booth, I wrote  THIS POST.