Everything is off to a good start: the sun is showing its face for the first time in days, it is freezing cold on this early morning, but there is an air of spring in the air.
Saturday: it is my first market in 2013, Bärlauchmarkt in Basel. I am well prepared and full of anticipation we set out with a new decoration of fresh flowers pots to celebrate spring.
In no time the tent is up:
The tent is up and the sun is shining
We only put up one back wall, wise by experience and maybe some foreboding?
The sun takes its leave
Then, unexpectedly wind comes up. We are prepared for the first gale, but the second hits us …
The second gale – look at the back wall!
… and bends the light aluminium poles: and goodbye to stability!
Thanks to all the good folks for their well meant advice: tie the tent to a tree, tie some weight to the tent poles, use tent pegs. I will certainly heed them next time. Only: there is not always a tree nearby, sometimes the ground is too hard to put in a tent peg. And sometimes your advice will not be welcome at a time when you would need four hands to hold fast and prevent the tent from flying away …
Open air with lawn carpeting and primulas
The somewhat different Easter nest with primula
We dismantle the tent, my eyes turn heavenwards: “Please, let there be no rain!” Rain, yes, please, here it comes:
My beautiful labels
No luck, it will continue to rain all day, with a few interruptions and always I hope for it to stop definitely. I put away the most fragile packages in plastic containers (great, would you like to have a look inside the box?), my labels start to dissolve.
Well protected massepain in the Moroccan glas bowl
I would love to pack up and go home.
What a pity for all the work that all the marketeers put in for the market, what a pity also for the organisators who are highly motivated and passionately involved.
My lovely neighbours (the shoemaker and the chesee cake baker) help me to stick it out, they offer me cheese cake and protection from the rain.
There are only a few people in the beginning, no wonder, I’d stay home in the warm and dry as well. However, the seasonal markets have become popular and attract more marketeers and spectators each time. By midday, also drawn by the freshly prepared food more people show up, not quite a crowd as on a sunny day.
After six hours I can pack up everything (well, not everything as I have sold a few things) and drive off into the well deserved weekend.
Do primulas need that much water?
And what marketing insights have I gained from this market experience?
- Fail to plan – plan to fail
- Be prepared for the worst case scenario (the best organisation is wasted when the weather does not play along)
- Heed advice and profit from others people’s experiences
- Timing is everything
- Appreciate the goodness of other people when you are in the middle of a crisis
- The most beautiful decoration is wasted when it is raining
I wish you all a peaceful Easter / Pessach time and do not forget: spring is just around the corner!
Have you ever experienced something similar and gained new insights?
Comments 16
Oh my dear friend, what a disappointment to have such “challenges” on your market day. But your attitude, positive spirit and marketing insights will carry you through. Even the best laid plans can go awry, but always best to have them, right? I’m wishing you sunshine, laughter and love, this Easter and always. Cheers! Reine du Printemps
@KDillabough Severely challenged, LOL! And it really makes a great post, do you not think so? I have just talked to a friend and he said: “The picture of your tent about to fly away really made me feel so sad.” If a picture of a tent can nearly make you cry, I have certainly arrived!
And I have found out something else: we dye eggs in order to find them in the snow! The weather is dismal to say the least and it will continue for Easter. Traffic jams on our highways as everybody heads for Italy. I do not blame them but I will stay here and enjoy a few days of quiet and socialising!
Thank you so much, dear Kaarina, I am wishing you the loveliest Easter ever and will look forward to our Skype chat next week. Ah, ma reine du printemps, do you not have some influence on weather conditions? xoxo
@Late_Bloomers I only wish I did have some influence on the weather. I’d be shooing away this snow!
Did we schedule a time/day for a Skype call? As you know I’ve been a little out of the loop lately, so I don’t have anything in my calendar. Please remind me:)
I look forward to a quiet family weekend. I fondly recall the days when the boys were young and we did crafts, hunted for Easter eggs (I would create notes that would lead to a hidden spot, at which there would be another note to direct them to the next spot…sometimes in riddles, sometimes with drawings). The boys loved it. Church, family dinner, counting our blessings. Cheers! R du P
@KDillabough Oh yes, I remember those moments as well, I always loved dying eggs with onion peels, draw some pattern on them with lemon juice and polish the finished egg with oil. Precious family time.
Do not worry, we have no time/day for Skype scheduled yet, will send mail.
Happy Easter!
What great tips you’ve gleaned from this experience – your positive attitude and determination to learn from what happened is an inspiration. I like the point about appreciating the goodness of others when you’re in a fix. Nice post.
Sue
@SusanNeal Hi, Susan, welcome to Late Bloomers and thanks for your lovely comment. Believe me I did not feel that fine on the market day itself, crawling into a mousehole would have been my preferred option.
Have a peaceful and Happy Easter!
Hi Barbara,
What a shame! I picture you documenting it and thereby removing yourself one step and gaining awareness to turn the experience into a marketing post! Kudos to you!
I love those primula. Do you grow them or buy them to decorate your table? Such a pretty set-up you do!
@Lori Hi, Lori! Thanks a ton, funny how we do not know how something will develop, it could have been a perfect spring day, no wind, no rain, the sun shining and the tent serenely standing there with its lovely white and ivory striped sides forming a perfect backdrop for the spring decoration!
No, I do not grow the primula myself. But, unless the slugs have had a go at them, they will reappear in the following year, slightly smaller but sturdier.
I will organise an Open House on Saturday (well, this is today as it is past midnight now) with the same decoration, pics to follow.
Thinking of you and wishing you a very peaceful Easter time, I am heading over to your place now.l
Have a happy Easter! And congratulations to you for having such a positive attitude! Good luck with the business!
@JSJ2020 Thank you so much, Muriel, joyeuses fetes! Yes, I guess I have a positive attitude in general, and some distance helped as well, good for me I did not write the post right after the market!
Ah, Barbara, this reminds me of the winter when I decided I would drive each Saturday from Miami down to Key Largo where there was an open air market targeted at the visiting “snowbirds” (that is, Northerners with disposable income). My goal was to empty a storage unit of handcrafted goods from Latin America that I had somehow ended up with. Each Saturday was an adventure, no two alike. Each dawn started with such hope and expectation … and I always came home with stories to tell! What I learned is that open air markets are a very vulnerable form of marketing … where you control very few elements. Like standing naked in the town square. But sometimes everything is perfect (the weather, your neighbors, the crowd, no competing events, etc.) and all the rainy days are quickly forgotten! Thanks for the memory!
@sharonoday LOL, Sharon, this is exactly how I felt: naked and thus vulnerable! You cannot imagine how comforted you make me feel, like you handed me a piece of cloth to cover up! Thanks a ton! Cheers to our memories and here’s to perfect days!
Happy White Easter (it snowed last night again)!
@Late_Bloomers Hope you love the snow and the idea of a white Easter. I got up to walk in the 65-degree dawn and have since been “working” in my garden. It’s about 75 degrees now. (Mind you, when you’re basking in the balmy Swiss summer, I’m fighting mosquitoes and hurricanes, so it all evens out in the end.) Happy Easter, Barbara, whatever color it is!
@sharonoday No, Sharon, not at all! I love temperatures above 80 degrees and cannot wait to start planting and seeding! But you are right I would not want the hurricanes and the mosquitoes. Maybe it needs a snake in paradise? Happy Easter, Sharon!
Rain can be the bane of any market! I admire you for sitting out there in the rain 🙂
@tandysinclair Balm on my wounds, Tandy! As for sitting it out: I had to stand all the time …. !