Annual Garage Sale 2021

The EHHOA sponsored a community-wide garage sale on Saturday August 21. This sale has had a long and successful history. It has been an annual event. It was not held in 2020 because of concerns about the impact of CoVid 19. The organizers were concerned that in 2021 the participation by resident-sellers and by buyers would drop to a point that the sale was no longer considered a successful sale. However, that was not a significant problem. In past years we have had as many as 35 households participate and the number for this year was around 20. We don't have an exact number because a few who signed up did not participate and we had a few participants who had not signed up. 

It definitely was a success. I personally collected some data by asking questions to buyers and sellers. Each group gave the sale very high marks. We got many compliments about how well organized everything was. We mirrored the same successful template that has  varied little over the years. I personally asked a couple dozen buyers a question about how they became aware of the sale. I would estimate that around 90% said their source of information was Facebook MarketPlace.  This is a complete shift away from daily newspaper classified ads over the years. 

We used the EHHOA's blog as the primary vehicle for communication with residents. Through the process of coordinating this sale I learned that we have some serious shortcomings with our expectation that posting on the blog is sufficient to assure that all residents are getting the message whatever it is.I learned that only 86 residents have signed up to receive the blog postings. We have around 284 households so we are getting the messages to only 36% of our residents. We have to reduce the projection of the number who actually read the blog message. I would like to work with Sri to see what more we can learn through the statistics available to us and then the board can figure out if there is anything that should be done to increase the number who receive the actual information.

When Tommie asked me to coordinate the sale I said I would if I could find some dedicated people to work with me. I want to acknowledge the great contributions of Ellie and Bernie Schunicht, Maureen Fogerty, Mittsie Shannon and Sri Kothagundla.   

If you have any questions or want more information please let me know.

Call Bill at 518 527 6588 or email: wreynolds10@gmail.com