Last year, we did Jingle Bell Shop. The company, Jingle Bell Shop, was great - in the beginning. They provided the table cloths, the gift bags (in several different sizes, as well as each child getting a big bag to carry all their gift wrapped and loose items in). They overnighted merchandise when we needed them to, at their expense. The only thing was, in the end, they didn't follow through replacing returned, broken items and they didn't respond regarding the final expenses vs product. I wasn't sure if our totals were all correct, and they never confirmed - just cashed the check and we never heard from them again... until this year that is...lol...
The problems we encountered were on our end. It takes several parents several hours to set one up properly. We had 3 parents (besides myself) who showed up, worked an hour and then left. It ended up being me, myself and I setting the majority of the store up - clearly pricing items, dividing items into table catogories (i.e. Mom and Dad table, Grandparents table, Sister and Brother table, Relatives and Friends table), placing the stock in ways that made it easy to get to, etc. The same was true when it came time to put everything back into the boxes correctly. Me, myself and I did 90% of that job as well, taking several 6 hour days long after the smiling faces were gone. Another problem was staffing. It would have been easier with 4 parents, one to run the register and one parent for each table. Parents would work for an hour and leave. Some just never showed up, some called an hour before they were to help and said they just weren't coming for whatever reason. Teachers dropped their students off at the door and left, leaving the parents to deal with sometimes extremely difficult children who had no concept of spending or budgeting. The hours that we were open turned into a nightmare because 1/2 hour before and after school were not enough, even though each class was given 40 minutes to do their shopping during school hours.
I will admit that some of the stuff was pretty cheap and we knew it wasn't going to last long, but the price ranges were good for even the smallest budget, from a nickel up to ten dollars. A quarter would buy 5 small gifts and that was the original goal - to provide something for everyone to give their Mom and Dad a gift. I think some people lost sight of that goal and of the age old adage "It isn't the gift, it's the thought". When a first grader takes out the trash to earn a nickel, it shouldn't matter that the gift was cheap or childish, it should matter that the child earned it and gave it with love.
In the end, I would say that 1) Make sure you have adaquate staff to set up, tear down, and work the shop itself 2) Make sure that you have something in every price range (Jingle Bell Shop GAVE us 144 items free, cheap things like plastic bracelets, magnifying glasses, puzzles, etc. that we could have sold for a penny apiece, but we used those for another promotion) 3) Be sure to send a note home explaining that while some of the gifts ARE cheap and cheesy, it is the thought that counts, not the actual gift.
Would I do it again? Yes. The children learned a lot from it. They learned how to manage money, budget money, count money. They learned the joy of earning money that wouldn't be spent on themselves, thus learning the joy of giving.