There are dollar store warehouses that you are able to shop in if you pay a fee to join. We paid $50 I think and had to show our Tax Exempt Certificate and a letter from the principal/Pta Prez, but it was well worth it.
Normally I could tell you how to find one of these warehouses because I'm the one that does the research, but it so happened that one of our board members already knew about the one we used because she had been going there for a long time for something else.
We did 2 Santa shops in the past few years, one using a company and one doing the shopping ourselves, and the one we shopped for was much better than the one using a company. Not only were the company's item just as junky as they appeared, you had to inventory the items when you received them (trying to figure out what was what since most items were in clear plastic bags with no markings),and you had to inventory them at the end too, plus do all their paperwork and pack everything up by their rules and wait for it to be picked up. The only good thing was that we got holiday bags for the gifts to be placed in.
Doing it ourselves meant going to a warehouse in Dade County and shopping, which was great fun,setting our own prices and having better merchandise. We even ended up selling our decorations off of the walls that year. Plus, when we ran out of product one of us just made another run to the warehouse for more,
After not having a Santa Shop for a few years we are planning on doing another one this year;we might try using Oriental Trading Co for all of the merchandise this time, or buying some things from dollar stores. I doubt we'll use a company.
We are looking to start a Santa's Workshop/Holiday House for the children to purchase holiday gifts for their family members. I read information on the website about shopping for your own items, etc., but that is just not in the cards for our PTO at this time. I am looking for feedback and recommendations on vendors you have used in the past. We are looking to do this as a service and something fun for the children and not as a real money maker for the school. Some of the vendors I have seen their catalogues and the items appear to be rather junky. Were the items better in person than in the catalogue.
