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This is the first real suck we've experienced since we started vending about 9 months ago, and if you can damn well believe it, it was from another vendor, not a customer. (seriously, our customers have been pretty awesome. Sure, we get the occasional oddballs who want something for a ridiculous price or who window shop for 20 minutes without buying anything, but I expect all that and don't really see it as sucky. We've also had a couple of items swiped off our table before, but since I don't know who's responsible for those, I can't really do anything about it...)
We were vending at an outdoor market place today. We haven't vended outdoors much; we started (and still primarily do) anime conventions, which are usually held in hotels. This was the third outdoor show we've done, and the first time we were in this particular area. The booth spot we had was pretty front and central to the road, which is why we requested it, if it was open.
We were tearing down at the end of the day. We'd already hauled about half of our stuff (all of our merchandise) to our car, which was parked on the road really close to our booth spot. We were in the process of folding up/tearing down all of our "hardware", ie table, chairs, tent, etc. We were taking down our tent and trying to get the canopy folded up. We had most of the rest of our stuff off to the side and out of the way; our table was folded up into a 3x2.5ft square laying on the ground, off to the side of where our booth spot was. There were other vendors all around us also tearing down, walking past us to get to and from their cars, etc.
Suddenly this other vendor (SV, for Sucky Vendor) from a few spots behind us comes walking past us and snarls, "Sure would be nice if you could move yourselves and your crap out of the walkway!" as he gives our table a shove with his foot.
My husband and I about dropped the canopy and stared at him, flabbergasted. He walked right past us without even stopping; his car was parked right next to ours and he was hauling his own load to his car. My husband and I exchanged a look as SV walked back to his booth. We were about done packing everything up at this point, so we grabbed some stuff, including the offending table, and headed toward our car. SV was on his way back to his car with another load, and the following "conversation" took place:
Me - hello!
H - my husband
SV - sucky vendor
SVW - sucky vendor's wife
Me: You know, we're trying to tear down our stuff and get out of here as quickly as possible too.
SV: Yeah, well so am I!
H: What a jerk.
SVW: Well, your stuff really IS in our way.
Me: If you had asked us politely if we could move it, we would have been happy to. You didn't have to be a jerk about it!
SVW: Well, I dunno if you folks are new here or what, but MOST vendors realize they have to keep their stuff out of the main walkway!
Okay, let's recap.
The only item that was in their way was a single folded up table laying on the ground. It was off to the side of our booth spot and certainly was not taking up the entire area. They had been getting through just fine for the last several trips they had been making to and from their car, and there was plenty of room to walk around the table. There were people on all sides of us tearing down, so no matter where we had put the table, it would probably have been in somebody's way, if they wanted to get pissy about it. Plus, our booth spot does not equal the main walkway. Sure, people were walking through it 'cuz we were mostly torn down and obviously leaving soon, and we didn't care if cutting through our space was the quickest way to their car. If we had still been set up at that time, what were they gonna do, shove our displays over to get through?
As we were hauling our final load of stuff to our car, a nice older lady who had been vending next to us came up to me and said quietly, "Don't you worry about him, honey." I almost burst into tears at that point; funny how someone being a jerk doesn't make me cry, but someone being nice to me does.
This is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. What really irks me is that this was another vendor being so nasty to us. I thought crafters and artisans were supposed to stick together. :\
We were vending at an outdoor market place today. We haven't vended outdoors much; we started (and still primarily do) anime conventions, which are usually held in hotels. This was the third outdoor show we've done, and the first time we were in this particular area. The booth spot we had was pretty front and central to the road, which is why we requested it, if it was open.
We were tearing down at the end of the day. We'd already hauled about half of our stuff (all of our merchandise) to our car, which was parked on the road really close to our booth spot. We were in the process of folding up/tearing down all of our "hardware", ie table, chairs, tent, etc. We were taking down our tent and trying to get the canopy folded up. We had most of the rest of our stuff off to the side and out of the way; our table was folded up into a 3x2.5ft square laying on the ground, off to the side of where our booth spot was. There were other vendors all around us also tearing down, walking past us to get to and from their cars, etc.
Suddenly this other vendor (SV, for Sucky Vendor) from a few spots behind us comes walking past us and snarls, "Sure would be nice if you could move yourselves and your crap out of the walkway!" as he gives our table a shove with his foot.
My husband and I about dropped the canopy and stared at him, flabbergasted. He walked right past us without even stopping; his car was parked right next to ours and he was hauling his own load to his car. My husband and I exchanged a look as SV walked back to his booth. We were about done packing everything up at this point, so we grabbed some stuff, including the offending table, and headed toward our car. SV was on his way back to his car with another load, and the following "conversation" took place:
Me - hello!
H - my husband
SV - sucky vendor
SVW - sucky vendor's wife
Me: You know, we're trying to tear down our stuff and get out of here as quickly as possible too.
SV: Yeah, well so am I!
H: What a jerk.
SVW: Well, your stuff really IS in our way.
Me: If you had asked us politely if we could move it, we would have been happy to. You didn't have to be a jerk about it!
SVW: Well, I dunno if you folks are new here or what, but MOST vendors realize they have to keep their stuff out of the main walkway!
Okay, let's recap.
The only item that was in their way was a single folded up table laying on the ground. It was off to the side of our booth spot and certainly was not taking up the entire area. They had been getting through just fine for the last several trips they had been making to and from their car, and there was plenty of room to walk around the table. There were people on all sides of us tearing down, so no matter where we had put the table, it would probably have been in somebody's way, if they wanted to get pissy about it. Plus, our booth spot does not equal the main walkway. Sure, people were walking through it 'cuz we were mostly torn down and obviously leaving soon, and we didn't care if cutting through our space was the quickest way to their car. If we had still been set up at that time, what were they gonna do, shove our displays over to get through?
As we were hauling our final load of stuff to our car, a nice older lady who had been vending next to us came up to me and said quietly, "Don't you worry about him, honey." I almost burst into tears at that point; funny how someone being a jerk doesn't make me cry, but someone being nice to me does.
This is relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. What really irks me is that this was another vendor being so nasty to us. I thought crafters and artisans were supposed to stick together. :\
Now to get that stuff I'd have to go to the 'cattle market' signature hunter shows that give me panic attacks due to the crappy layouts. Its seriously reduced the benefits of the convention for me because a few people couldn't wait an hour or two and stick to what they paid for.
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