We made a few sales, but mostly we sat behind the stall, snacked on Mon's delicious home-made cream crackers, and gossiped about all the people we knew.
Guys we are at the Knack! Buy the pickles! Buy them. pic.twitter.com/ox8ItRHlla
— pickle-pants (@gingrjane) November 14, 2014
One of the best things was the woman selling crochet across from us – she had a fabulously and hilariously broad German accent, an infectious giggle, and a pretty great sense of humour. She asked if she could enhance her cheese roll with our bread and butter pickle taster, and who were we to say no in the face of such enthusiasm? She also bought some of our wares which infinitely increased her in my estimation. There was a lot of inter-stall trading going on over the course of the day, and I ended up spending more than I earned (but nobody said this was an exercise in money-making, alright? Evidently for me mostly an exercise in pottery and jewellery acquisition).
There are a couple of things I would change when we do it again - more game for our stall, layers and levels and more beautiful things to attract attention. I also wonder if it's a better idea to have lots of small amounts of different pickles and mustards rather than a lot of the same – so, variety over abundance. The main thing, and the thing that harks back again to my days in retail - is the need to talk talk talk and engage people and get them excited.
We have no immediate plans to be at another fair, but we do have some delicious goodies that we still need to move. I will make a note here next time we have plans to be somewhere, in case you are in Wellington/super keen. We're selling under the name Pickle Pants – a phrase I coined when I got a whiff of my jeans one Friday at work - they were the same jeans I'd worn when we made 43 jars of bread and butter pickle and they were very whiffy, like stale vinegar and cucumber.
Nothing sexier than pickle pants.
