PSM Experience

Our first day... Ended up not being our first day. We were completely oblivious to fact that when other activities happen at Waterfront Park it directly effects PSM. Our first experience coincided with "The Shamrock Run" This run closed bridges and streets in and around Waterfront Park. Now I don't have anything bad to say about the Marathons and other activities that happen at the park but as a beginner to PSM it is definitely a learning experience as a vendor. Our first day was a complete BUST! We got up and got the car packed and was out the door at 7am. We drove all the way to downtown Portland and got stuck in horrible traffic just was we crossed the Morrison Bridge. We sat in Traffic for over an hour and only moved about 10 feet. It was very reminiscent to driving the freeways in downtown Los Angeles. The only difference was that people were getting out of there cars and running to the starting line or sign in area. After an hour the PSM sign-in time had past and we were still no where near getting there. We ended up making our way to a left hand turn lane and after another 30 minutes finally got out of the traffic and headed home. This became the first day that never was but we learned a very important thing for being a PSM vendor. When there are extra activity days at Waterfront we reassess whether or not we want to sell that weekend. The other thing we have learned from other vendors that during certain activities means slower sell days. Rose festival brings more sells but marathons brings less.
Lesson learned... Some Waterfront activities means more headaches and less sells.