On Saturday, May 2, Downtown Alameda’s Spring Market [1]and the Children’s Business Fair [2] returned, populating Central Avenue with over 70 craft vendors, food, music, and community booths. These events drew families into the downtown corridor for a fun afternoon of browsing—and a portion of beverage sales from the Spring Market goes into a fund for projects that help keep Downtown Alameda clean and safe.
[3]While vendors sold seasonal offerings at the Spring Market, organized by the Downtown Alameda Business Association, the Alameda Children’s Business Fair featured young entrepreneurs who sold products they created themselves. The fair gave kids an audience for their work while it gave shoppers a chance to see young people practice their business skills in a supportive public setting.
Modeled after the Acton Children’s Business Fair [4], the event aims to support children in developing a brand and creating a product or service. Kids are encouraged to really think through a marketing strategy and draw customers in a one-day marketplace. This is an extraordinary and practical opportunity for kids to gain confidence and planning skills as they learn about setting up booths and selling directly to customers. Like last year’s fair [5], this event showcased kids’ creativity while eliciting many smiles from buyers.
The range of businesses showed how children transform their many interests into entrepreneurial ideas. Booths featured jewelry, comics, slime, handmade crafts, art, pet-themed goods, 3D prints, soaps, cards, squishies, and other small products. The decor around each booth was as colorful as the products themselves.
[6]Among the young vendors were Bodhi Singh-Germick (4) and Shakti Singh-Germick (8), whose booth, Hot Squishies, won the “Most Creative Product” award. At just 4 years old, Bodhi had the idea for this product, inspired by his siblings’ love of squishy toys. With support from their parents, these brothers transformed that idea into a collaborative sibling business. To make Hot Squishies, the boys draw original artwork on their dad’s iPad. The art is transferred onto hard-to-pop water balloons that customers can squish.
[7]Another booth, Sister Yee Studios, won “Best Sales Pitch” thanks to three sisters’ engagement with potential customers. The business is a family effort by Kaitlyn (11), Karissa (10), and Juliana (7), who enjoy experimenting with different artistic mediums. Their booth featured braided keychains, shrinky dinks, and clay worry stones, which are pocket-sized calming tools designed to help children manage big feelings and daily stress.
After their dog passed away, the sisters generously decided to donate a portion of their proceeds to Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter.
[8]The sisters noted that they learned a lot about money management and talking to customers. They also enjoyed seeing what other kids brought to the fair. As 7-year-old Juliana said, “I like making things, selling things, and I have fun while doing it all!”
Customers clearly also had fun searching through the kids’ wares and finding creative, resourceful products often made on a limited budget. Children proved they can bring fresh insights to marketplaces and design fun, exciting products.
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[10]The Alameda Children’s Business Fair prophesies great success for the next generation of makers. Hopefully this event will carry on next year and even more kids from Alameda can gain entrepreneurial experience.
Check out the next event downtown, The Rock & Roll Beer Stroll [11], on Saturday, June 13.
[12]Vivian Delchamps Wolf (English PhD, UCLA, 2022) is a professor of English at Dominican University of California and a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. She is also a disability justice advocate, ballroom dancer, cat lover, and board game enthusiast. Contact her via [email protected] [13] Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Vivan-Delchamps-Wolf [14].