For the past 3 years Tea District has been exhibiting at the Atlanta International Gift Show at Americas Mart in both January and July within there temporary gourmet section. These are wholesale shows, open to business owners only looking to purchase products to resell in there stores. We’ve always had great experience and exposure there and have always planned to come back.
In January, Americas Mart opened a brad new building 2 West Wing, offering permanent spaces for companies, like Tea District, to be able to permanently set up and lease space to sell there goods. In February we decided to check out the area to see if it would be a good fit for our growing company. It was impressive! There is a cooking demonstration area, very friendly atmosphere, and is very well layed out. So guess what – we signed up!
Over the past weekend, myself and my mom – who totally rocks by the way – flew to Atlanta to set up our space.
Day 1 we woke up at 4 Am, flew to Atlanta, went to IKEA to pick up the 1,200 lbs of wood displays. Loaded them into the car, fortunately at the loading dock at the mart, the guys unloaded our car and brought all of it up to our showroom for us. My mom started building all of the back bookcases while I painted. After the 2nd coat of paint and over half of the displays built, we called it quits at about 6 pm.
Day 2, Headed off to Target at 8:30 then back to the mart loading dock by 10:00 am… where we started to build some more. I kept saying we’ll be done in about 2 hours, but I think I said that about 4 times! At 9:00 pm we were officially done. No Breakfast, Lunch at IKEA at 2:00 – 1 hot dog and 1 ice cream cone each, dinner at 9:30 pm, bed at 11:00 pm
Day 3, Decided to take a Stand By flight that left at 6:35 am. Woke up at 4:00 am, at the airport by 5:00 home by 8:00 am!
All and all…
1 gallon of paint – 2 coats
13 pieces of wood display pieces to build
14 cabinet doors to mount perfectly
1 table and 2 chairs to put together
2 tea district display units
240 cans of tea to unpack
1 big pain in the a** decal to stick to the wall (8 feet by 2 feet)
4 magnetic strips for loose teas to mount to the wall
and only
1 trip to Sherwin Williams
2 trips to IKEA
2 trips to target
1 trip to Lowes
Looking forward to seeing you at our new showroom if you are a wholesale buyer! Come visit us at Americas Mart – Atlanta – Building 2 West Wing, Floor 8 – 8127A kiddie corner from the cooking demonstration area. Next Mart: July 7 – 15, 2009. For more information on the mart, please visit www.americasmart.com
If you would like our wholesale catalog before you come visit us, please call our office at 866.532.5268, email sales@teadistrict.com, or check us out on the web at http://www.teadistrict.com/.
Enjoy –
Lindsey Valentini – Tea District Owner
