Advice from our community on running a Mother's Day Stall

Reader question:

I’m just wondering if you could ask your community for tips on running their Mother’s Day Stall:
1. Gifts that sell well
2. Prices to charge and recommended mark up
3. How many gifts they buy compared to the population at the school?
4. Do they package their gifts or how do they present them?

Here are some tips from our Facebook community on running a Mother’s Day Stall:

We have all gifts at $5 each. Some are just one item ie photo frame or nice mug and some items are combined ie notebook and a pen. Keeps it very simple for those handling the money and mostly not much change required. We also sell grandmother/nanna etc gifts. Often kids but 1 but some get 2-3 or even more. Getting the numbers right is tricky!
We asked for donations and received around 30 gifts. We purchased the rest from kmart around the $2 mark and separated them and gifted wrapped. Sold for $5 each. School is 200 kids we had around 25o gifts. Sold 242 gifts. We made over 700 profit.
We buy from catalogues, but also get a large quantity of donated items. Our prices range from 50c to $10, with the bulk of items around the $5-$6 mark.We limit the items to 1 or 2 small gifts each, with an opportunity to come back and purchase any excess stock at recess.We put an extra $2-$3 on items, we also have a few small free items(eg A4 “Best Mum” certificates, small chocolates with tag) etc for those children who have no money.We have around $200 students, and usually profit $1000 from our stall, and another $200 for the raffle.
Mugs, candles, tea towels, manicure sets, garden tools, oven mitts, etc all sell really well. We have just over 400 students I purchase around 250/300 items. We make sure the kids and parents know it’s first in best dressed! Mark up around 50% depending on prices but we aim to have nothing over $10! We don’t package the gifts they come quite nicely package.
Mugs, pens and photo frames sell well. 50c-$2 mark up (we run it as a service not money maker). One item per student (not all buy, some buy 2-4) photo below from reader:

We buy plain brown paper bags & get a different class to decorate them each year. Last we trialled ink pads & stamps (like love hearts flowers I love you thank you) and they turned out fantastic & easy to do.
Anything that is cute with Bears or Hearts on it tends to sell well with the younger children. Lots of times they buy for stepmoms and also Grandmother’s so usually more presents than the number of students. Also have a few cheaper gifts or that you can give to the kids who can’t afford to buy anything. We used to give a box to the principal after the stall and they would give them to the kids in need. Ask kids to bring there own plastic bag so they can hide the present from their mum when they get home. Also get kids with siblings at the school to check what they have bought so they don’t double up.
We have a theme. It was tropical last year.
We introduced sand art activities so the kids could make something at the stall. They loved it.
I can only add one photo in this message.
I have heaps of other pics if you want me to send to you.
We have 280 kids and made a profit of $2200 as we had lots of donations. We cater for four gifts per child plus activity and sold out of everything.
We buy stock the week after Mother’s Day & Father’s Day and store it for next year. Items go out for $0.50 each in department stores and supermarkets.

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Originally published 26 February, 2019