Christmas Market Reflection 2022

Overview of the Project

At the end of each year, the year sevens host a Christmas Market. In this market, we are given a loan by All Saints’ of $30. We use this to purchase everything that we need to make a product for these markets. This means that we must sell enough during the markets to pay back this loan. All the extra money that we make then is donated to charity. During this process, the groups have to design and make these products. We learnt how to price things reasonably and the consequences of pricing them too high or too low. This is an amazing opportunity to work as a group and to help others in need.

All Saints’ Capabilities

This project required each team to use the All Saints’ Capabilities. These include collaboration, creativity, leadership, and organisation. We needed to use creativity and organisation to make the products and designs, we needed to use effective communication when talking to customers and leadership and collaboration to run the whole project in teams. If a business was able to put these together they would be successful.

Collaboration and Leadership

My team was very good with collaboration in the beginning, but over time we started to have more arguments about the right thing to do. We tried to solve these issues but eventually just became more annoyed. One of our group members often took control of most situations when we could have gotten a better result by working it out as a team. We didn’t show amazing leadership, instead, we were just bossed around. It wasn’t as effective as it could have been, but we did get the work done. Collaboration was essential to these markets.

Creativity

Our idea wasn’t very creative, but since we required different designs, we drew each one separately. Each design was drawn by hand, using our creativity. Our product, stickers, used much more creativity than I would have guessed. We had to create each one by hand, create a drawing for each one, and make it slightly different from the other ones. I think we could have had a more creative idea because other groups were making unique products that I had only ever seen in the markets. Our products had competition from large companies like Kmart or Target. Creativity was essential to this project, so we could have done better.

Organisation

Our organisation was better than some groups, we got all our sales recorded and completed all the products that we needed to make before the time of the actual markets. We could have made much more and expanded our idea, but in the time we had, we made a good number of products. We got all our decorations and printed everything that we needed on time. We could have made our Excel spreadsheet easier to read instead of spending so much time on just the product designs. We could have improved here, but overall, we had adequate organisation.

Sustainability

I was extremely unhappy when I found out my group was making stickers. They are terrible for the environment and don’t have a purpose. The highest priority for me is sustainability. If I wasn’t sick when we made the idea, I would not have agreed. The product uses sticky tape (made completely from plastic) and heaps of paper was wasted. If the sticker falls off, then the plastic and paper will be stuck in our environment. Compared to most other groups, our group greatly lacked sustainability. I was disappointed in this choice, given that another member of the group goes to Sustainability Club. There were also a lot of leftover materials and stickers that had to go in the bin. I wish I was able to pick what I made, but there was nothing I could do to change it.

Interactions

When our group was selling the product, we invited people over, explained our product and didn’t rush them. I didn’t do much of the talking, instead, I added some details if there was something that was missed. I was probably the only one that noticed (and can still remember) that when we all said “Hello!”, our voices were all at different pitches. Luckily, they made a cool chord, but it still annoyed me that we didn’t just let one person say it. We answered everyone’s questions, we also gave advice, and put products aside. We were friendly and greeted everyone with a smile (with the eyes). Our stall was very inviting, and I personally thought it looked really cool. Most of the time the customers were friendly. Some people didn’t even stop, but that didn’t stop us from greeting them and sometimes we even got them to take a look just by being friendly.

Spreadsheet/Sales

We made a profit of $2.02. We only had to pay off $18.48, so we didn’t have to make as much as other groups did. We had 9 sales and received $20.50. We did make a profit but most other groups made a lot more than we did. As I had previously mentioned, we rushed the Excel Spreadsheet, so it could have looked a lot better and could have been more efficient. The items we were selling cost 50c each but if you wanted to get more we’d lower the price (4 for $1.50). We made sales of usually sheets or many singular ones.

Our Excel Spreadsheet:

What I have learnt

The Christmas Markets offered an amazing opportunity to all the year 7 students. We were able to learn about supply and demand, the different types of pricing, how to make an advertisement for the product you chose, and how to run a business. Although this project was very stressful, my group was able to get our act together and overall make a profit. I learnt more about when to step up as a leader, and when to let others lead. I went out of my comfort zone by pitching in front of the class with short notice (due to being sick when the pitch was being made) and interacted with people I wouldn’t normally interact with. Overall, I think that this was an amazing experience and hopefully do it again (without getting sick when the important decisions were being made).