By Bruce Karnick

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Not being a big garage sale guy myself, I was familiar with the concept of the Citywide Garage Sale. Before starting with the paper, I had no idea who organized it or when it was. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as the 100mile garage sale.

That meant, when we started getting calls about the Citywide Garage sale in Hastings, we were not sure how to respond. We assumed the Chamber of Commerce was involved and organized it. Surprise! It is the paper. We decided to give it a go. Utilizing friends, word of mouth, social media and the chamber for research, we were told that it is typically the first Saturday in May. Looking at the calendar, that made some sense because Mother’s Day is the second weekend, so we went with it!

Advertising was created, we had a plan in place, figured out the price we wanted to run for and off we went! Social media for both Hastings and Cottage Grove was a buzz with people excited to see the CWGS return to both towns. Hastings Folks, you only missed it a year, it has been out of Cottage Grove for a very long time.

Then the messages started to reach us saying that we picked the wrong weekend. Yes, technically, we picked the dates, but we did so on information we were given. Evidently, the event is supposed to coincide with the 100-mile garage sale weekend and the organizers of that event decided this year will be on the second weekend in May.

The conundrum has begun. A few have already taken us up on the offer for the initial weekend and advertising has been out there about the weekend. What is a newspaper to do?

First, we will admit, we did not know about the 100-mile garage sale. Ok, as one of two Hastings residents on staff, *I* did not know about the 100-mile garage sale. Sorry. I cannott know EVERYTHING can I?

So here is what we are doing.

We are going to up the advertising side of things and ADD the second weekend to those that want to have a sale that weekend. If you want to do both, cool! We will advertise your sale at the same address for both weekends for the $30.

Want the first weekend? You spend $30. The second? You spend $30. Want to be part of both? You spend $30!

So you pick, April 29, 30, and May 1 OR May 6, 7, 8, OR BOTH. All you will pay to be part of it will be $30.

Thanks for understanding and happy selling!