Most of the sites who offer santa's shop, are on consignment. Meaning you have nothing left over and no up front costs. I can explain more, I have many flyers from some of the companies here. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
"We would love to do the shopping ourselves but just aren't sure how much to order. We can't afford to get stuck with too many leftovers."
To figure out how many items we needed to purchase, we used some of our own experience, and figured that each student bought about 10 gifts. Some kids bought less, but others bought more. Then we took that times the number of students in our school and rounded that number to come up with 4,000 items. We started shopping for this Santa Shoppe as soon as Christmas was over last year and got quite a few things on clearance from local department stores and Hallmark stores. The bulk of our items are in the $1 - $2 price range. We don't have anything priced above $4 at this point. We don't make any money on our Santa Shoppe - its not a fundraiser. We rounded our cost prices up (or down) to the nearest quarter to make giving change out easier. So we have some money built in to cover expenses like wrapping paper (we use decorated lunch bags for most items) etc.
We are also trying to do our Santa Shop for the first time. We would love to do the shopping ourselves but just aren't sure how much to order. We can't afford to get stuck with too many leftovers. I would love any help or suggestions. Our kids just can't afford the prices from the vendors. Thanks so much!!!
Please e-mail me any suggestions. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I have found and hoping to use this site. I talked to the gentleman from our area for an hour yesterday. His customer service was great! He was knowledgable and NO UP FRONT costs. I hope this helps. I even asked him if it was local carnival left overs. He assured me it was not and gave us a guarentee.
We have tried using the dollar store type places but the quality is worst than other programs and most of the items you get are not appealing to the kids. I scoured the internet to find a company that sells inexpensive gifts and finally found one. lerouxproducts.com sells hundreds of different items that are perfect for school gift shops. I was a bit confused on how to order online so I just called and they walked me through everything. Even though they did not have money envelopes and paper products listed, I found out that they have those too!
Of course if you are not up for doing your own shopping, the traditional consignment programs are a good way to go but make sure you really check out the quality of the merchandise. We have used Reindeer Lane, Penquin Patch and The North Pole Express. They all did a good job but we decided to spend our time shopping for a couple of years because many of us are stay at home moms and we like to shop!!!
