I was contacted by a local hospital to participate in their United Way campaign. They are having a "mall" set up of local vendors, one day only, where 10% of the sales from each vendor will be donated to their United Way donations. That's fine with me. My concerns are that I have no clue as to how many cookies to have on hand for this event since it's the first time they have done this and the first time I've done anything this large! I'm thinking of having the fancier decorated cookies for display along with different packaging options, bouquets, party favors, etc., and having more plainly iced cookies for sale (round, simple flowers, etc.). That will help a great deal with my preparations. I just can't figure out how many cookies I might possibly need. I don't want to have too many, but I certainly don't want to run out! This will be an all-day event from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Anyone have any idea of how I can figure this out, or any other suggestions or ideas that I might have missed? I haven't committed to this yet, still trying to figure everything out to see if it's feasible.
I did this once for the Easter Seals CHristmas Bazaar. I got a box of those plastic containers that some restaurants served burgers and fries in (Oval shaped plastic baskets). 12 cookies in each. I had about 150 of these containers. This was their first year also and it was a CHristmas Bazaar ...... folks buying cute items for Christmas and cookies just don't fall into that category. However ..... I took less than half of them home and passed out a lot of my cards! (The ones I took home, I used to fill the next day's order for one of my commercial customers, so they didn't go to waste!)
I will say the ones that sold the best were my Peanut Butter packages. I had 4 regular peanut butter, 4 chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips, and 4 peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips grouped together!
Look at it this way .... if you sell out, you get to go home early! 
Wow!! That's a lot of cookies!! The good thing is that this is on May 29, the day after Memorial Day, so I will have all weekend to bake and decorate. That could also bakefire, as people might take that day off as well.
Thanks!
I think that you should maybe just make a few of each of your things.
My experience with crafts, in general, is that a lot of people like to look and not buy! I have done events like what you said, on a holiday, and people are out on vacation. You want to keep your cost down so you don't have waste. I would rather you make too little then to have too much left over. Another factor is this is their first event. Ask them how and where they have advertised and if they have had any inquiries about the event. That would give you a better idea. Make your set up like you are doing a window at a clothing dept. Enough to look at and make them want to buy inside! 
Good luck! Sounds like fun! 
It's not a craft show, just inviting local stores (vendors) to set up a table and sell in the hospital for a day and then donate profits to United Way.
Ha ha! Just realized I typed bakefire instead of backfire. LOL! I hope there is no bakefiring going on with my cookies, no backfiring either for that matter.
I'm still getting info as it is available. I used to work at the hospital and my old boss called me about this. As she gets info, she passes it on.
Thanks!
I´m sorry, just read again the original post, I thought it was YOUR first time, not theirs... my bad.
So I just asked my Dad, he is kind of savvy in the field. Well, he said it all depends on the traffic you area has, even the location of the hospital, how big of a city you live in. He said that in our area, small city, about 15-45 min to bigger cities, he would calculate somewhere between 10 - 15 customers per hour. I don´t know if this is of any help but thought I´d share his opinion. Good luck!
Here's my 2 cents.....
If "I" were approached to do something like this, I would be looking at it from the point of "charity". I wouldn't be expecting to make a profit that day. (However, if I did, that would be WONDERFUL, too!) My plan would be this: I would set a budget (like $50.00 or $100.00 in out-of-pocket expenses....ingredients, cookie bags, boxes, etc) and would make as many items (cookies) as I could for that set budget.
Secondly.....I would look from the point of "advertisement". Just think of how many people would take your card, see your product, etc.
Third.....have a plan for if you have a TON of your product left. Donate it to the Children's Hospital, a local retirement home, people at work, local sheriff's office, etc, etc.
If you begin this adventure with this frame of mind, EVERYONE is in a win-win situation!
Have fun baking!
Well, it's my first time setting up something like this, so in a way it is my first time as well. The hospital is approximately 15 minutes from Cleveland and is part of a large 'clinic.' I can't remember how many employees, but I can easily find that out.
That's a great idea for donating leftovers. My sister is a police officer (actually works in 2 different cities) and she just sent out an email about me and my new cookie venture to her fellow officers. I can definitely box them up and send them to work with her.
Thank you for the ideas!
I did a charity event in a the fall it was a small children clothing company doing their debut and all the profits from the event were going to St. Judes. I ended up making about 175 mini cupcakes. With the clothing company's logo's and designs.
I know they had sold about 70 tickets for the door for the adults plus their kids. I figured that 175 was enough. There was other donated foods there as well.
It took me lots of hours to make them and it was a good learning experience. I was donating the whole thing so it was just a big donation for me and I could not be there for the event. As far as a I know there were only a few leftovers. I made 3 types of cakes. White, Chocolate and Gluten Free.
So if you go into it with this frame of mind,like {momthreekiddos} said you should be fine. It you can figure out how many people work there and how many patients are in the hospital, then you could use a percentage, of that total and have that many individual cookies available. You could also have some presentation cookie bouquets or some of your other combinations available for same, just make sure you will have a place to take them if they are not sold.
Regardless of how many you sell, make sure you have lots of business cards or little flyers they can take.
Let us know if you decide to do it and how it goes it you do.
Good Luck
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