Equipment for Outdoor Vending
This part of the guide is for folks looking to setup an outdoor business
Picking a Tent
Warning: When choosing a tent, pick colours that are neutral and will allow light to pass through ambiently onto your items for the best effect. Green/Red tents will make your goods look weird.
Cheapest
The best cheap tent is about $110-120 at Walmart. It's made by Ozark Trail, and has a tan/grey top. This is a great starter tent that will likely last 2-3 years. It's not the prettiest, or sturdiest, but its the best cheap one.
Mid Range
A great mid range tent is the Quik Shade 10x10 from Home Depot. It's currently listed for $229, has straighter sides and is taller than the cheap Ozark tent. It's sturdier, white in colour, comes with one wall, and will likely last for many years.
My favourite
This one has the option for custom branding, you can have the top custom printed, or sides, or half walls... whatever you'd like. It comes from Banner Buzz. You can also buy it with a plain top, and the legs are hexagonal and super sturdy, side easily, and this tent looks really nice. Without a graphic printed top, it starts at $306. With the printed top, it comes to $987. Any walls would be additional.
Safely transporting your wares
Totes
Totes are a great way to protect your stuff, they stack when you get home, and are more waterproof than boxes.
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Consider investing in a few matching ones, sized appropriately, and with good lids so you're not bringing a weird bundle of left over bins with you - that don't stack together when empty, and can fall over without lids.
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These are my favourite from Home Depot, they come in 3 sizes, and I've never broken one. I've linked the medium size.
Wagons and Dollys
It's super helpful have something with wheels. Consider where you're likely to vend, is it grass, or concrete? Making sure your equipment has bigger wheels will make it easier to roll on grass. I once bought a crummy dolly off amazon, and the tiny casters were useless, and it also made an awful noise on concrete... learn from my mistakes...
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Wagons are mostly all pretty good, haven't seen a bad one, but here's one from Canadian Tire for $159 that looks mid-grade. When I say wagon, I mean folding ones like this too, so they fit in your vehicle better.
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Dollys can be great too, here's an actual good one (not what I bought) from Amazon that is convertible and can operate as a cart or a tilting dolly.
I'll discuss tables in the next section of the guide, displaying your goods.