I'm interested in who you use. Please email me the shop name and contact information This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thanks

ladyfingers;131957 wrote: I used to do a shop on my own, big no no! First of all you have to have the money up front to lay out and the pta help to do all the shopping. Everyone says they will help, but then later everyone is to busy, doing all other pta duties. Also, most things bought in the dollar store and outlets are either damaged, or the ceramic was not boxed and chipped. When we were running out, the stores were bare and all junk was left. Then you are running the sale and trying to save things for other grades, because you do not want to run out (by doing this we were losing money) also, try running out in the middle of your sale to get new things, talk about having a break down!!!! I could not find any items the actually said mom, dad, grandpa etc.
After this disaster, I tried using a holiday gift shop company. I will say it was the best decision I ever made. We did not have to pay for anything up front, they shipped it all to me for free and they took back whatever we did not sell, even the damaged items!!! All on consignment! Most of their gifts were personalized which was we were looking for. We wanted the kids to make happy memories with the family members they picked their own gift out for. We did not use this for a fundraiser, every other thing we do all year is to make money, not this, we use this time just to enjoy the kids and have fun! The quality of the gifts, were great (really gift type items someone could use) not from the dollar store, where everything is pretty much junk and not really worth gift giving. If you take the extra step, add a santa and take pictures, give out candy canes, show a holiday movie while the kids are shopping, everyone (kids and parents will enjoy the time with each other)! The shop I use is very reasonable and their customer service is great. If you would like to know who they are just ask:)

Hi

I used and still use A Small World Gift Shop, you could check out their merchandise on their website: www:smallworldgiftshop.com. Their merchandise is great and very nice for gifts, not cheap junk, also they have very nice jewelry items. I am also a big bargain hunter, however with everything else going on it is very tiring to always run around to buy things, and store them. Also, you really don't want pencils, eraser, etc. for the kids to shop, this reminds them to much of school work. They have a wonderful variety of personalized items for all family members, children love to buy these type of gifts. Check out their website you can't go wrong!

tsunamimommy;132715 wrote: We are in the same boat! We used a company this past year and have used them in the past. I'm not so sure I like their quality on all their items (the jewlry in particular is rather shoddy at best!) I am tempted to go with another company (ladyfinger, who did you use?) but I think most of them purchase their items through the same company, so it's basically the same stuff all around.

I'm thinking next year, I want to supplement our sale a bit more with items we pre-purchase, but still offer the "holiday shop" items from a company too. I'm a HUGE bargain shopper and have no problem hunting down some items I feel we can use. If you have a Scholastic warehouse anywhere near you, watch for their clearance sales. All those pens/pads/erasers are at the sales for at least half the price of what they are during the normal book fair! Not to mention the books at bargain prices too!

Be careful offering "additional" items when you use a company. Most contracts stipulate that there be no competitive selling going on...ONLY their stuff. We're trying our hand at going w/o a company this year.

We also don't do our holiday shop as a fund raiser, but just to allow the students to shop for their family members in private We even supply them with wrapping paper and the teachers help them wrap their gifts before going home.

We shop our local dollar stores, dollar tree in general is the easiest to work with. They let us know when the trucks are scheduled, so we get first pick. And they'll take back certain items if they are not selling for us. We are also fortunate enough to have a member who works for Walmart. They are great to work with and they let us use her employee discount, so we actually do make a little of a profit.

We shop for a week straight, carting van loads to the school. You really do have to have a dedicated chairperson and committee for this, when you do it yourself. But it can be done

The amount of items you need would depend on how many days you offer the "shop". We run ours for a week, having certain classes shop each day according to a schedule (20 minutes each) and then allow for "make-up" shopping on Friday of that week. We also have to limit the amount each child can spend. We allow for $10 (which is 10 gifts). In past years, we would have little kids running around with $70 in their pockets! Which not only worried us about them losing it, or worse, stolen from them; but also, moved much more merchandise than we had planned on. So we have set the limits now. We also provide $5 for each student that is financially unable to take part. Our principal handles that for us, so we have no idea who these students are, and more importantly, they don't feel left out. We usually have 500 students shopping, so we know we need at least 5,000 items. Moms, Dads, Grandparents, Siblings, Pets and Teachers are our main gifts.

We do end up having to run out in the middle of the week and pick up more of certain types of things, whatever is hot that year, but we've gotten it worked out so it runs pretty smooth now. We've been doing it like this for a least 6 years (that's how long I've been involved).

If you have the time to put into it, it can be done . . . but it's not easy, and you'll feel crazed by the end of the week, but the kids LOVE it and it makes it so worth it!!

Good Luck!

We do our own and it's been wonderful-- we have 600 kids in our school and our prices run 1-5.00.
It's a little hard to predict what the kids will buy, but they will buy from the options you give them.
We have something at every price range for every family member, including a 1.00 table for dog and cat toys (this a big hit) we never have enough animal toys. the first year you do this is the hardest, because when you have to outlay so much money, but after the first year it gets easier.... we store anything left from one year to put it out the next ( if we spend 1.75 on an item, we move it up to 2.00 or a little more to off-set the items that don't sell) Talk to a dollar store owner a lot of times they will give you a discount because you will be buying a lot from them, all you can order out of their catalogs... personalized items go BIG (pens, mugs, etc.) Also golf items and tools for dads, grandpas... kitchen towels, jewelry for mom, grandma. Stuffed animals (HUGE) and kids always what to buy one thing for themselves as well.
We send out an envelop with a form for parents to mark who the kids are buying for and much much for each one-- this helps out a lot when our volunteers are helping the kids shop. We have found also that more and more parents are choosing the 5.00 gifts because the gifts are worth a lot more than the 5.00 and parents know it. Also engraving ornaments was added last year, and this was so huge we ran out of the 400 ornaments we made-- we even had teachers buying at our shop-- it went over so well, we made money during the event. The only down fall is you have to have some storage to place everything you buy until the event and you have to have 2-3 parents that love to shop, because if it's just you, you will get burnt out from shopping that you won't want to shop for you own Christmas gifts. Have Fun!

We have been doing our own store for a couple of years and usually make 3000 +. We have about 575 students. If anyone would like more information please email me and I can give you some contacts that have great items.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.