The Craft Fair- Remind me not to do this again

There is an annual craft fair at my place of employment, and you can sign up for free. I had only been employed there for a couple of months when they were soliciting for participants, so I signed up with the thought that it would help me meet people. Over the last year, I'd built up a stock of container candles, and I thought I could sell them without a lot of effort. I wanted something else to sell (smaller, inexpensive), so I did some brainstorming (and Pinterest browsing) and came up with cork ornaments.

I bought supplies for the cork ornaments at craft and hardware stores, plus gift bags and tissue paper at the dollar store. Expenses incurred: $29.09, plus the supplies for the candles I'd previously made, about $3 per candle. I decided to sell the candles for $15 for average-sized and $20 for a few very large ones. I charged $5 for the ornaments.

I packed and brought 19 candles, plus 22 cork ornaments.

The craft fair ran for 5 hours. There were about 15 other tables and there was a good amount of traffic through the place, but none of us really sold anything. The jam and jelly lady did OK and there was a jewelry table that made some sales, but the rest of us were pretty bored. It didn't seem to help that my candles are unscented- everyone immediately picked them up and sniffed them. Ultimately I sold 5 candles and one ornament, and three of these sales were from people I knew well and probably felt compelled to buy something. This confirms what I've long observed- people don't really buy much at these things (I know I don't). Total revenue: $90, margin $45. A back-of-the-envelope accounting of my time spent (making the 5 candles only- not the 19, making the ornaments, required errands, setup and sitting at the fair) is about 15 hours, or about $3 per hour. I'll be keeping my day job. At the end, I had to pack everything up (along with all the other sorry vendor souls) and haul it out of there. I guess I have a lot of cork ornaments now. At least I didn't make something perishable. Chalk this one up to a failed experiment, one I don't intend to repeat.