WAG Need Advice (re: roses at meets?)

[mamaS]

Quick poll, do you buy roses at meets? I am in charge of our booster club and roses are the bain of my existance! The are beautiful, yet fragile. We did them at our meet 3 weeks ago. I was up at 0500 for 3 days and worked 14 hours each day. We processed 550 roses and lost at least 150 due to people messing up. We had several left over. We host the state meet in 10 days. I am dreading doing them again. We have stuffed animals and raffle baskets for each session. It's hard to know how many we really sold. We used money bags and didn't have a cash register. I also wonder if the roses took away from our stuffed animal gram sales. We sold 200 of them at $7. We deliver them to the coaches to hand to the gymnasts on the floor. I'm just worried that people will be disappointed not to have flowers at the state meet.
On a good note, now that we've done them, we can fix some of the problems we encountered. What say you?

 

[3rd_time_around]

I've never bought them for my DD, they are a waste of money imo.

 

[gymmiemom]

I don't typically buy them. I do buy t-shirts/hoodies, especially if it is a big meet like state. I'd rather spend money on something she is going to use.

 

[lhmom]

Same here. We don't buy them either.

 

[Empowered]

Would never buy flowers. T-shirt, sweatshirt, stuffed animal, leotard... All of those become a keepsake. But a flower just dies.

Even candy is better! At least that keeps them distracted if awards go badly... heh

 

[Azgymmiemom]

We've done hair flower bouquets at our last three meets. I make about 60 of them. We've sold out each time. You can sell them for about $10 each, too. And they don't die.

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[MaryA]

We've done hair flower bouquets at our last three meets. I make about 60 of them. We've sold out each time. You can sell them for about $10 each, too. And they don't die.

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Hair flower bouquets? I assume they go IN hair and are not made out of hair? Would love to see a picture.

I did vending at our home meet. The dollar store is your friend. Mylar balloon + weighted base = $2, sold for $5. Sold out of them. Clear plastic tumblers with lids and straws + hair ties + hand sanitizer + some candy = $3, sold for $7. Sold out of them. And if we hadn't sold out of them, I could have returned them (or saved them for the next meet). I got lots of complements that we were offering different things and for reasonable prices. We ended up with next to nothing left over.

 

[txgymfan]

What are "hair flower bouquets?"

 

[Azgymmiemom]

lol...that WAS pretty vague and strange sounding, huh? The ever popular hair flower clips...like a hairbow... You can get them from Halo Heaven pretty cheaply. I clip them onto a green pipe cleaner "stem" (loop a little leaf) and then take three, wrap them in a tissue paper and tie a pretty bow around them.-Instant "bouquet" We sell them usually with a shout out and then deliver them to the girls during awards. This year, we glittered the flowers, bc that was what was the popular trend. It IS a little time consuming, but I can usually find moms at the gym sitting during classes that are willing to help.

In my experience, anything that you sell with a shout out during the competition and then promise to deliver right to the kids during awards goes over really big. Candy gram, hair flower bouquets, tumble grams (Tumblers full of bubble gum), etc. And it works the best during the L3, L4 and L5 sessions where the kids are mostly younger.

 

[Natasha]

At our home meet this year we decided to do artificial flowers. A couple moms bought the big colorful daisy style flowers and some roses from Michaels on sale and we sold those. They sold very well and the few leftovers we had we were able to pack away to sell next year. Real flowers are a pain and if they don't die before the end of the meet, they pretty much die before you get home.

 

[krisnkids]

I'm with the others, I would not buy real flowers at a meet, the majority of the girls that compete are younger and would not appreciate them nor do they last. Candygrams, teddygrams, tshirts etc have always been great sellers. One thing that we did in Cali that I rarely if ever see done anywhere else is sell pins. Level, 9.0, 1st on ..., 1st AA, I got my kip, etc. Its probably to late to get those but it could be an idea for the future.

 

[Mom2twingymnasts]

I don't buy flowers at meets either. Like the others, I purchase tshirt, hoodie, leos at meets - if I purchase anything at all.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

Can't recall being at any meets with flowers or balloons. Mostly candy grams and stuffed animals. We are hosting States as well but figure by the upper levels, parents are not into buying too much little stuff anymore.

 

[Empowered]

lol...that WAS pretty vague and strange sounding, huh? The ever popular hair flower clips...like a hairbow... You can get them from Halo Heaven pretty cheaply. I clip them onto a green pipe cleaner "stem" (loop a little leaf) and then take three, wrap them in a tissue paper and tie a pretty bow around them.-Instant "bouquet" We sell them usually with a shout out and then deliver them to the girls during awards. This year, we glittered the flowers, bc that was what was the popular trend. It IS a little time consuming, but I can usually find moms at the gym sitting during classes that are willing to help.

In my experience, anything that you sell with a shout out during the competition and then promise to deliver right to the kids during awards goes over really big. Candy gram, hair flower bouquets, tumble grams (Tumblers full of bubble gum), etc. And it works the best during the L3, L4 and L5 sessions where the kids are mostly younger.

I kind of like this hair bow thingy now that it makes sense to me. One of the gyms around here competes with kind of a sloppy pony and a flower in their hair and it's kind of a nice change.

At lot of this stuff also depends on the level of the meet though. In our area level 9, 10 and Excel sessions hardly sell anything, shout outs, food, nothing. Level 7 and 8 can still do pretty well, but it's generally the lower levels that do better with the shoutouts and gifts. I think as you get fruther into the sport, and hence become more broke, you stop thinking your kid needs to hear, WTG for a buck

 

[2G1B]

I have never been to a competition with live flowers. It has been concessions, leos at girls' meets, shirts, bags, some of those bottle cap necklaces... I wouldn't buy flowers.

At our home meets (and most meets we have been to) we always do the "wish grams" - the announcer just reads it for each kid who has one. they are $1 and cost nothing to do (well, the less than a penny for a slip of paper with the info on it - I think you probably get 3-4 per single sheet of printer paper). I used to not do the wish grams; but my kids started asking for them. Even my son wants them for now. I have heard that by the time he is 10 he won't want them anymore.

 

[Natasha]

Quick poll, do you buy roses at meets? I am in charge of our booster club and roses are the bain of my existance! The are beautiful, yet fragile. We did them at our meet 3 weeks ago. I was up at 0500 for 3 days and worked 14 hours each day. We processed 550 roses and lost at least 150 due to people messing up. We had several left over. We host the state meet in 10 days. I am dreading doing them again. We have stuffed animals and raffle baskets for each session. It's hard to know how many we really sold. We used money bags and didn't have a cash register. I also wonder if the roses took away from our stuffed animal gram sales. We sold 200 of them at $7. We deliver them to the coaches to hand to the gymnasts on the floor. I'm just worried that people will be disappointed not to have flowers at the state meet.
On a good note, now that we've done them, we can fix some of the problems we encountered. What say you?

Most parents will be relieved to not feel any pressure to buy flowers if you don't have them. You may have a couple wanting flowers, but they will be the minority! And as long as you have something for sale for those that want to get some memento, that will be sufficient. Good luck with your state meet!

 

[nameless]

we sell carnations at our meets.. they actually sell pretty well and aren't as expensive as roses.. i know at our last big meet we sold out before i even got there..

this hair bouquet.. it's just a presentation of hairclips, right?? not actually pinned in the hair in a bouquet formation? you take the flowers off the pipe cleaner before wearing, right? if so, that is a crazy good idea.. if you are pinning little mini bouquets in their hair then i am confused.. i do love that cheer-like hair bows are popping up at meets..

 

[flgymmom]

When my girls went to States we bought them a sweatshirt and a pin... We don't buy anything at other meets.

 

[coachmolly]

Way back when I was competing (10+ years ago), flowers were just about the only thing you could purchase to have delivered to your kid on the floor. And they were typically just single carnations with a note attached for $1. It was a big deal if you went to a meet with fancier/more expensive bouquets! It was also much more rare for each meet to have a t-shirt, so flowers at the end were super exciting. There were the usual leo/pin stands that we would get a treat from on a special occasion, but not even all meets had those.
I guess now with all of the extra stuff being sold and delivered to the floor there really is no need for flowers, as long as you have something else to take their place that kids would like. And if you want to have some flowers just in case people ask, I think carnations are just fine- cheaper and not quite as fragile. And do kids really care what kind of flower they get?

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

I would say no roses. At states when we were younger like level 5, most of the teams would be given stuffed animals or some fun little thing by their coaches to march in with and my coaches always insisted on giving us a bouquet of flowers. We never appreciated them and always wished for stuffed animals. And the flowers always got crushed in the bottom of our gym bags.