The Epworth Show

The Epworth Show is a pretty major event for Epworth. It is a traditional agricultural show where you can see livestock, vintage vehicles, old tractors, show jumping and even ferret racing. There's even a trade tent where people try and sell to the hoards of punters that traipse throw during this one day festival of country living.

So my wife took a stand in the trade tent (an immense marquee) along with many other budding hopefuls. Inside the marquee the mix was pretty varied. A fudge stand, a local private school, cards, jewellery, Jamie At Home franchise, a potter, jam and pickles, books, cup cakes and even a stand for Hull College (manned by two very bored looking gentlemen). Nobody could say that there was a lack of variety.

The organisation, apart from a few minor hiccups, was excellent. The location was good and the footfall was such that many craft/art fair organisers might well die to reach half the numbers we saw. It's a pity that this throng of people were keeping their hands firmly in their pockets.

This lack of spending cannot be blamed on the organisers. They'd done a pretty good job. They cannot be held responsible for the public's unwillingness to spend their money. To illustrate this situation I'd like to tell you a story....

There once was an over the shoulder bag which sat on a perch along with three very similar bags. They were all made form a very pretty material that had images of young girls riding cute, plump ponies. Now this bag was up for sale at an agricultural show where many horsey type girls were in attendance. Many of these girls saw this bag and oohed and ahhed over it. Saying how pretty and cute the bag was. Some girls came back to see the bag many times during the day. Picking it up, stroking it and then putting it down again. During the day over two hundred people picked up the bag, admired the bag and then put it back again. At the end of the day, the bag was still on its perch along with its fellow bags. Unwanted and unpurchased.

The moral of this story is simple. People aren't willing to pay a paltry £14 for a handmade bag made from expensive designer fabric. This isn't a work of fiction. I, personally, monitored the rate at which this bag was being "fingered" by the public. At one point the rate of "fingering" was more than once a minute. Each brief session of "fingering" ended when the punter looked at the price tag. The reaction was almost universal. The punter would grimace and then put the bag back on its perch, then walk away. We could have dropped the price of the bag but then there would have been no profit in the sale. We aren't a bloody charity. The whole idea is to make money not waste it.

The behaviour of the punters was a direct message. A valuable message. That message was that they did not value our products as highly as we did. They did not agree that this poor bag was actually worth £14 of their hard earned cash. No matter the work that had gone into the item, the cost of the designer fabric and all the other costs a business incurs and must be paid for. It was a chastening experience. There was no problem with the numbers and we could see that people had money. They just chose not to spend it with us, or many of the trade stalls we could see.