Saturday just gone. A steam fair. Lovely location - terrible weather!
The venue was packed and I had shared a pitch with a friend who owns the local farm shop so we each had our own stock and own gazebo.
the wind caught my gazebo 10 minutes in, buckled the hinges and the whole thing collapsed on my head. Its now a right-off (if anyone can recommend good gazebo's please do, I need to buy a new one!)
then I had the pleaseure of making £1.95 profit after pitch hire was taken out (but not including the cost of gazebo  so really negative figures)
and then (!!) someone said that my soap was far too dear (at £1.95 for 80g) but proceeded to buy 3 bars?! he also said that as it had my contact details on, he'd come to my house and "complain if it smelt at all goatie.."
aaaaaagh! sorry, rant over 

Firstly, what a prat of a customer. It can be hard sometimes to keep from saying what's really on your mind in such cases.

Sorry you had a crap fair. There;s been a run of them lately, esp the smaller ones. Fingers crossed for your next one.

(oh, and £1.85 for 80g is pretty cheap for a handmade soap, but it really all does depend on your area. My home town only buys the £1 soap from my bargain basket, at other fairs it's the £4 soap that goes fast. Stick to the prices you wish to sell at)

What an idiot that customer was. I assume he was joking about visiting! I certainly don't think that £1.85 is expensive. It would be really lovely to them what you are thinking, and very hard to smile sweetly and say nothing.

Rant away!

Oh goaty it sounds as though you had a rotten day. You will always get the odd customer like this try to take no notice, I have had customers in the past complaining about the price / products etc and it does knock your confidence a bit to start with, I just think you get used to it after a while as some people are just downright rude.

Goaty what a carp day!! Big huggles.

As to that rude customer who thought they were expensive but stil bought three, his actions certainly dont reflect his words and my thinking is that he recognises a bargain. Because to be frank that is NOT expensive. Just look online and other shops.

You know the time effort and ingredients that go in your soap. You are proud of your product and rightly so, so sell it at a price you think appropriate. Personally Id add on another £1.

If he does come knocking at your door tell him that you have reflected on his words and have taken into consideration  al your costings  and thank you , you now realise that actually you should have priced them  more a to reflect the cost and b to reflect their worth.

Stick to your guns girl  Sorry thats my rant over people like that p me right off. Hes a t**t!!

What michelle said and id add £1 as well . Your soap is made with love , you think about what goes into it , and your ingrediants are sourced how you would like them . Stuff him what a loser.. Although he did get a bargin from your soap.

Thank you everyone    Its nearly a year since the business started and I've never increased my intial prices. Only last month I was think that in line with VAT rises and the fact that my beautiful goat had died (which meant buying milk from another goat breeder) it was time to increase by a set amount but his comment made me wobble a bit!
Your words have reinstated the confidence I have in my handmade soap which literally starts from milking my white goat (in the picture with my daughter!) in the pouring rain through to wrapping and selling myself and why should I undersell both my products and its not fair on other handmade soap sellers either. so...prices will be going up to reflect the hard work and love that goes into the soap. Thank you all xxx

Sorry to hear about your problems.

Check out this post re gazebos

http://www.forum.fresholi.co.uk/index.php/topic,12736.msg192804/topicseen.html#msg192804

 

Sorry you had such a miserable fair and an even more miserable customer 

I was going to mention the pop-up gazebo which Corrie told us about a few days ago, but I think that's the link that EJ's given you.

Brilliant! thank you!

oh poor you, if it's any consolation my 1st fair which was a few weeks ago, was exactly the same - I made £2 after the stall fee!  Although thankfully I didn't have to cope with a collapsing gazebo!

What a silly customer.  He can't have thought it was that dear if he then bought 3 bars - more likely he was just hoping you'd offer a discount or throw in a freebie.  You should've laughed at his comment about coming round & said something about setting the goats on him if he complained about their soap!  I like what Michelle said as well, I think if he comes to your stall with his silly comments again you'll soon shut him up!   

Good for you re the price increase too - don't undersell yourself - not only do you make all the soap etc, but milking goats must be really hard work!

Sorry about the miserable fair Goaty but good for you for raising your prices!
There will be other fairs where people "get you" and things will be very different then, just a matter of finding them!
My worst fair was 2 years ago at the Lomond Folk Festival, quite a big fest that draws in some bigish folk names but the craft fair....OMG! I think I sold a lip balm all day  I didn't pay for the table upfront and by 3pm I was mightily cheesed off so I did a runner without paying for the stall  :mwaha:
Funny that they asked me back last year and again this year

That's awful

Oh Corrie, that's made me laugh - got an image of you doing a runner with a table under one arm and stock under the other  :mwaha:
feel better for sharing my frustrations here - that's the thing about being the 'soap seller' at most fairs, its quite an unusual market i find and people either say "oh wow! handmade soap " or "oh look fudge" or they just steer a clear berth    the amount of children that went off looking sad when I had to say ooh no its not fudge was untrue!

Wow I didn't realise you milked the goat before you even started soap making I made my first batch of GM soap a few weeks ago and it is really lovely soap, you should be doubling your prices at least IMO I think most soap makers are now charging around the £4 mark especially after all the recent price hikes in raw materials, Don't undersell yourself you are making a lovely handmade product from scratch which you should be very proud of. Good luck with future fairs and I hope the new gazebo doesn't blow away...... :mwaha: