at events in the past, I put the bottles in clear plastic produce bags. I buy rolls of flat produce bags from my local grocery store (~$19/1000) and have used those for years selling salsa at the local FM and bottled sauces at big hot sauce events.
Side Note-Early on in the FM days, I started keeping paper and plastic bags on hand to give out to people who needed something. I never understood how vendors would just hand a bunch of produce to the customer to pack around the market and not give them a bag! :shrug: Anyway...when I'd see someone with their hands full, I'd call them over and sometimes chase them down, to give them a paper or plastic grocery bag.
The clear produce bags work good so other people wandering around would say "hey, where'd you get that salsa/etc?"
At the last event I went to, the Portland OR Hot Sauce Expo in August 2016, I did not have salsa or hot sauces for sale, only Pure Evil products. I sprung for some small custom printed bags. Same material as most reusable grocery bags. Printed with the Pure Evil logo. Every purchase went into one of the bags so the folks would carry them around the event and hopefully get others to notice. There was room in the bag for other sauces the customers may purchase.
Basically, I want to help the customer carry my stuff around the FM or event, and also have my product visible in the plastic bag or with the printed Pure Evil bag.
for shipping, I use an
INDESTRUCTO box from Uline. Simple fold-over construction, and with 1/2 sheet of bubble wrap, it's been super reliable for shipping. I've had one customer send me a picture of a box that looked like it got ran over by a fork lift. Had to comp that one....but for the rest of the 1000+ that got shipped last year, they all arrived in good shape.
I don't do holiday shows, so I don't have a need for a display window gift box. So you have to ask yourself if a windowed Gift Box at a holiday event will help sales, ...., or knowing the "gift" will be wrapped anyway...maybe the 6x9x3 indestructo box with bubble wrap will work for both sales at a show and online sales. Offer Gift Show customers the box as a "show Special"...knowing that a lot of people purchasing hot sauces at a show are as a gift.
Sorry, I probably got a little side-tracked~~~ Hope this helps~~~
SL
