Buffalo Holiday Market — Local services in Buffalo

VENDORS, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME. DON'T DO IT: I own a successful shop and have done events around WNY since 2020. My biz vended several dates for the 23 season, at both locations, across days in November and December. It was a huge waste of time for me and other vendors (who I got to know through the weeks). Unfortunately, we pre-booked our dates and could not get a refund. I would not recommend this market to any vendor, large or small. It was a bait and switch; the website makes it seems lovely and full of people, and projects the idea of a busy market and professional event. But the reality is that most of the days-even Saturdays-are slow, and the organizers are clearly a bunch of ladies who wanted a Hallmark Christmas movie market without understanding how to execute such an event. Thursday and Fridays downtown are dead, and there were times that it was completely empty, with vendors having nothing to do but make small talk from across the path, bouncing from foot to foot to stay warm, scroll on phones, and be collectively annoyed. There were vendors who make $0, and days where less than 20 people showed up (yes, it was slow enough that I kept a tally!). If it's a Sunday with a Bills game, the place will clear out an hour before the game, so those day's aren't worth vending. Saturdays downtown had about 2 busy hours. Hamburg was slower than downtown on weekends. On opening day, we showed up to our assigned downtown chalet and it was filled with many bags of decor: twinkle lights, pine tree garlands, wreaths, and hanging accessories. We asked someone to move the items, but they never showed up so we had stop our own set up to move items out of our way. While this was a day we made decent sales, it was not representative of the majority of the market's opening hours. We showed up to vend at the location in Hamburg, only to be told by an emotionless assistant that they did not have a spot for us to set up because our chalet was locked from the previous day, and they couldn't unlock it. Instead of getting bolt cutters/removing the lock they said we could not vend (what? your whole gimmick is maintaining chalets and they couldn't do that), and attempts to discuss the situation by phone or email were ignored (an owner emailed "I tried calling you 2x" but never called or left a message, and conveniently never found us in person to discuss). Nobody tried to remedy the situation, or apologize in person, by phone, or email, which emphasized that this team does not know what they are doing or how ensure vendors have a place to vend. The quality of fellow vendors was sometimes lacking, which showed that they were not curating vendors, but accepting anyone selling just about anything. No standards. There was someone selling fake knit hats from china (they were knock of of a specific brand, with misspelled tags and made from a low quality material). Sometimes there were 2-3 vendors selling the same thing, like freeze dried candy, unofficial bills merchandise that all looked the same, and clothing that said "Buffalo" on it...all of this made it seem more like the Temu version of the Christmas market that it was trying to present on social media/website. And opposite of European markets which have an abundance of hot food (that make people want to stick around) the options for hot food were perogies or mini donuts, one beer vendor, and one coffee vendor serving warm coffee. The lead organizers made it clear week after week that they were winging it. They had problems in communicating by phone/email, and will leave you hanging over basic or important questions. BUT they will send you lots of emails asking you to pay to vend additional dates. It is apparent that these woman are in over their head and don't understand the basics of vendor coordination, event operations, and getting people to attend. At the end of the season, unsurprisingly, I had to follow up 3 times about my deposit. VENDORS, this is your warning that proceeding will be a WASTE OF YOUR PRECIOUS TIME AND MONEY! DON'T BE FOOLED....

This is the definition of great marketing and poor execution. Most of the vendors there were selling Etsy-esque merchandise. $30 for a cheap water bottle with a vinyl printed off a cricut machine.. pass.

Food was ok. Not the best for what Buffalo has to offer. Would have been better if they just had food trucks.

Parking for us was free, if I had to pay it wouldn’t have been worth it. Music was too loud from the speakers- if you were anywhere near them you had to yell to have a conversation.

We paid for an “igloo” rental - what was displayed online was drastically different from what we actually received. $75/hr for a plastic Covid bubble with no heat. The chairs were breaking apart, there was no included beverages or heaters like advertised, and plastic vinyl sides of the igloo were covered in droplets from peoples breath due to no ventilation. Definitely left wondering if I’m going to be sick tomorrow or not. Not a single staff person to be found for it had to hunt them down - there was poor signage indicating they were reserved so once you did find staff they’d have to kick people out of them who didn’t pay to be there. They could stand to fence it off, spruce it up, and keep someone out there watching over it.

On that note: there was No staff or security to be seen anywhere. Wasn’t a fan of that. Had to ask the vendors where bathrooms were or the people who controlled the igloos.

All in all this wasn’t worth the drive from Rochester. If you live in the area it’s a ten minute walk through at best - otherwise...

I totally agree with the negative reviews being left for their events!!!! They overbooked a show after I’d made my deposit. After switching the date, I did the weekend show in very cold and wet weather. We had to sign in at Loaded Lumber, and we’re supposed to sign out the Sunday night after the show closed we were both cold, and wet when we were done closing up. I took my heater to drop it off inside. There was no sign out sheet, and no one inside except a couple young people laughing and talking in the back room. No one answered my calling out. I left the heater and went home. After several months of waiting for my deposit back, an email went out saying that because we didn’t sign out, they wouldn’t refund our $100 deposit!!!! They obviously saw that we had returned our heaters, and locked the chalets.

Their shows were heavily advertised, yet poorly run!!! I’ve spoken with many other vendors who were just as upset about the management of the...