first day at school

I had my first proper market day on Tuesday and after all of the stresses and worries and problems it was AMAZING!  I literally have never enjoyed anything more (sorry Sam) it was vibrant and buzzy and fast paced…there literally was never a dull moment.  It was over all too soon and I was gutted when I realised that I had to wait another whole week before I got to be there again.  Setting up the stall was harder than I had anticipated as those boards are frikkin heavy and so big that you definitely cant lift them alone.  Luckily I had the trusty boyfriend and his rather lovely mum there to help out.  Sam’s mum runs a stall two days a week so her advice and experience has been pretty much invaluable.  We lugged the boards about for a bit and went through several different sizes before I found two that were perfect.  I opted for a hessian cover as I have brown package labels and crates as props and it all seemed to match quite nicely.  Another thing I hadn’t thought of was how high up the power point is, too high, as it turns out.  That was another job for Sam to compete with.  The rule of the market is that your stall should be ready to trade by 10am latest so we got there at just after 8am and started to set up straight away.  Its surprising how long you can spend fussing over the way a rope is tied or how your hessian is laying.  We were eventually done by about 9.45am which I was pretty happy with.  What struck me was how quiet the market was while everyone was setting up.  I had assumed it was going to be loud and brash with people throwing apples about and shouting “two fer a paaand” but it was completely different.  It was as if people were not only preparing their stalls for the days trade but also themselves.  It was peaceful and there was a sense of contentment in getting their stalls perfect.  The only real noise was from a guy selling records who was switching between reggae, Elvis Presley and what sounded like the entire dirty dancing soundtrack.  This all changed when tourists started wandering around the market, as soon as the first person stepped foot into the square it was like the market burst into life, as this is a Cambridge market there is strictly no shouting or touting for business but there was cheerful banter, music, the sounds of the sewing machines and smoothie makers and chat between traders.  I loved it.  As I said, I had Sam there but everyone was so friendly and we had so many people visiting us we shouldn’t have worried about any first day nerves, I had this dread about being “the new girl” but there was no sense of cliques or groups, everyone was there for one purpose and there was definitely a feel of all being on the same team.  When 4pm came around I couldn’t believe where the day had gone, it was all a whirl of meeting new people, tweaking the layout and chatting to people about vintage, I couldn’t have wished for a better start.  I cant wait to get back on there, the only thing I was upset about was having to go back to my day job!

confrontation station

Ok so I know I haven’t blogged in ages, this is purely down to my day job taking up my whole life.  As I’ve previously mentioned, I work as a retail manager full time and also run a market stall selling vintage clothing every Tuesday.  Due to this I spend a LOT of time interacting with the public and one thing I have noticed is how quickly people will turn when they don’t get their own way.  I don’t know if it’s the colder weather or the approaching threat of Christmas that has made people so confrontational, but yesterday I had a man literally shout in my face and punch over two displays because I wouldn’t give him student discount without seeing his student card.  Before this he had been perfectly nice, we had chatted as I showed him through our range of new stock, we had joked when I tripped over trying to carry him 8 pairs of jeans, we had bonded over our dislike of stale coffee, in fact by the time it got to the payment I was pretty sure I had made a new best friend.  As I was putting the transaction through he noticed the sign saying “20% student discount with valid student ID” (please note the part about a valid student ID) and so he asked “can I have the student discount?” “of course” I replied, “can I just see your student card” that was my fatal mistake.  How could I possibly have the audacity to request some form of proof that he was in fact a student? Why on earth would I need to see that he had just told me that he was a student, why would he ask for the 20% discount otherwise?  What sort of moron was I? What was I thinking!? This torrent of abuse came so suddenly that I was actually too shocked to speak for a second and as I was recovering myself he then demanded to see the manager.  To this I replied I was the manager and I would need to see some sort of ID card with an expiry date to prove that he was studying.  Well, not only did he not believe that I was the manager, he also started shouting “don’t shop here! They rip you off!” great.  Anyway, security were called, he shouted and swore some more, punched two innocent bystanders (my display racks) and was dragged out.  When security asked me how this came about all I could say was that I honestly didn’t know and that I had just asked for a student card.  They laughed and just said “its crazy what people will do for some money off” I can honestly say I have never caused such a scene and cant imagine a situation that would compel me to do so.  Yet people do.  They shout at cashiers when they cant give them a refund, they bitch at bus drivers for getting stuck in traffic and they look down on hairdressers for providing a service.  Once a customer randomly asked me what 30% off £67 was and when I couldn’t answer straight away they laughed, patted me on the arm and said “never mind sweetheart, at least you’re good at folding jeans” I could never bring myself to treat another person like that and so I ask again, is it the cold weather or the approaching threat of Christmas that has made people so confrontational? Whatever it is, next time somebody asks for student discount, I’m getting security in just in case.