Nearly New Sale
The Centre @ Halton continued its successful events programme with a very well attended Nearly New Sale on Saturday May 7th .This was organised to raise funds to continue the ongoing refurbishment of the Centre.
Due to the energy of Maureen Richardson, there were 22 booked tables in advance and over 200 visiting parents and children keen to buy the very wide range of nearly new items, especially for babies, toddlers and children.
At 10am, when the doors opened for the Sale, there was a long queue of potential buyers outside the Centre all keen to purchase the best items. Some had come from far afield, having seen the posters and other publicity around the area.
During the day the Centre’s Coffee Shop (now known as Coffee Central) was also very busy. Those attending the Sale appreciated this facility and the chance to view the new Skate Park and the improved outdoor facilities.
For the first time, the table holders were asked for information about their experience of the Sale to help the Centre to develop its events planning strategy. The comments were amazingly positive with all the table holders being ‘very satisfied’ with the venue, the organisation before and during the event, and all confirming that they would participate again if a similar event were held in the future. 1/3 were ‘very satisfied and 2/3 were ‘satisfied; with the response to their items and their sales. There were no dissatisfied customers!
There was also a chance to ask those attending about how they heard about the Sale, and this can feed into the Centre’s marketing strategy – some people had seen all the publicity posters, websites and roadside signs – but for most it was just the poster, or the banner at the Halton mini roundabout which they had noticed. Also important was ‘word of mouth’ especially through the Halton Toddlers Group and the Centre and Babymaze websites.
For the table holders, the poster and ‘word of mouth’, particularly through contacts at St Wilfrid’s Primary School, had been the most effective way of initially publicising the event.
Most important of all, through the raffle, entry fees and charges to stall holders a very satisfactory £315 was raised on the day and this will help to finance the much needed fitting out of the Centre’s main kitchen.
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