The Flea Market

Ok, so today I experienced the flea market for the first time ever in my life. I have been to flea markets but never sold anything at one. It was...interesting. I had my own little table. I had a nice colorful sheet that matched my business cards. I had a cute little set up and a suggestion page and everything. The morning was slow...really slow. It seemed that this was not the kind of place to sell my stuff. I kind of gave up hope early on, but stuck it out anyway. The folks next to me looked like they were clearing out their garage. That's what this market was like. A giant community garage sale. People walked by and looked and said good morning, but no one seemed interested. I sat there for an hour or two before these two dudes walked by. By the way, I make soaps, lotions, scrubs and stuff. Not really things for dudes. So this long haired dude walks past with his scrubby zitty friend and he backtracks and says, "What you got, girl?" I explained to him everything I had on my table, let him smell the soaps. He then says, "I'll take this one." I was surprised but not really. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the only reason they stopped was because...well...I'm pretty cute. Well I try anyway. So that boosted my confidence as a seller a little bit, but I was still concerned. Scrubby teenage boys...is that it? As the morning went on, more people started paying attention to my table. I said good morning to every person that walked by in hopes they would stop. All of my samples of course taken. Then I finally made a sale! This woman came up to me and asked about my stuff. Is it natural? What's it made with? Did you make these? So I explained. She then asked how much they cost? I was excited. If I swing this the right way, I can persuade her to buy. She wanted two of the soaps. She didn't however want to pay $2 each for them. Is $2 too much for a bar of soap? She started asking about the lotions and if she could get one of the lotions. I showed her my pricing list and she then suggested I combine the products into one purchase. What a great idea! If you think about it, it was like giving a discount on the whole purchase. So I went with it. She bought 2 soaps and a lotion for $5. The lotion she bought was $3.50. So I made $5 on what would have been a $7.50 sale. I still wasn't completely convinced that was the way to do it, but then something interesting happened. More people responded to the combo thing. I sat there for the next hour thinking about how to combo all the products of different sizes. A man walked up to me and said, "Damn girl, why you sittin out here all cute, you waiting for a husband?" I told him I already have a husband but thank you. He asked about all the products. Asked if they were all for girls. I told him not necessarily. He picked out his combo. His phone rang and he said he'd be right back to buy. He left and of course did not come back. Figures. But that's ok because the stuff that he was going to buy I ended up selling anyway. I ended up making 2 more sales the same way. Then out of the blue a person told me about the farmer's market! There's a farmer's market? Tell me more, please. She said that many more people go to that market and more of them would be interested in my all natural stuff. What a fantastic idea. Today wasn't wasted but I still feel like I didn't get anything out of it. I want to be able to sell my stuff for what they are worth. Not haggle with someone over a bar of soap. But that's to be expected at a flea market right? At the end of the day, I sold 3 soaps, a face mask, 2 lotions, and 3 scrubs. Not bad for my first time. Next time, I will totally try to go to the farmer's market instead. Maybe I will have better luck there.