I have been selling stuff in different online environments, but just stopped working my full time job this past March and decided to do my first craft show. I purchased a booth in a craft tent at a 2 1/2 week long fair… yes, most peoples' firsts are at the local school with the cheap booth, but hey I decided what the heck, might as well jump in with both feet. Every other booth was manned by multiple people (i.e. one booth had 30 different ladies working it for different hours of each day and the least number of people at another booth was 3). So, I'm not the brightest tool in the shel when it comes stuff like this…

Anyway, this show was a horrible experience and here are my three most memorable customers…

Customer #1. There is a man in my booth who has come back for the third time. He keeps talking about buying a really nice mother's day present for his mom and I am seeing dollar signs in my head (getting real excited, too… sometimes I do better at the computer than talking to people face to face, so this was seeming like a good boost for my confidence). He says he's going to get a beer and do I want one? (I'm thinking, this place sells beer??!!) and I come up with my best response, “No, thank you, I only drink the fruity stuff like Smirnoff.” 10 min later he comes back with a smirnoff. Finally some women come into the booth and have apparently chased him off. I was commiserating later with the lady in the booth next to me b/c I thought I lost a sale. She was really sweet and in this totally southern accent says “Aww honey, he was lookin to buy, but he ain' buyin what you're sellin.'” I went home that night wondering how dense I had to be that I was busy trying to figure out what this guy's mother's style was to help him find a gift and he was trying to pick me up? Needless to say, after that first night, I made sure I did not forget to bring a cooler with plenty of drinks (water and iced tea only) for the rest of the duration of the fair…

Customer #2: I have a couple of pieces of jewelry where I used six strands of seed beads… I had a lady come up… my normal is “Good morning, and how are you today?” Her response is “Oh, I'm not buying – I'm just looking for new ideas, but the seed bead work I do is much more intricate than this.” So what happened to common courtesy and the normal response of “Oh, I'm fine. It is a beautiful day isn't it.” Or some other small talk…

Customer #3: The Worst… Do you ever have that item that you just hate… you made it and it doesn't look right and you are too lazy to take it apart and re-do it? you just want it gone and out of your sight? I had one such piece that I had priced at $2 on my table… hoping some 6-10 year old girl would love it and take it away. The lady from the booth behind me comes up to ask me about it.,, and haggles me down to $1. It rankled me b/c I sold it at way below material cost, but hey, at least I didn't have to pack it up or ever look at it again. I had another $10 item on my table that she said she liked but would be back the last day. Anyway, the following day, I see a girl holding my item at her booth and the lady is trying to sell it for $15. Is that low class or what? On the last day, she came by for the $10 item and was offended that I wouldn't sell it to her. Would you have done different?

Thanks so much for the laugh.
Christine

And then there's the new trend in “be backs” (the people who say “this is beautiful, but I just got here. I'll be back”). The new one is “Do you have a web site? I'll buy it from there. Yeah, Right. I wish customers would just nod, smile, and take a card.