How To: Shop at a Local Market

So, you've walked into a local flea market or multi-vendor boutique or someplace similar.

These can be interesting and fun places, often showcasing products and items you won't see in main-stream stores.

Of course, you can walk through acting like an oblivious, rude, self obsessed idiot or you can actually take some time and keep a few things in mind that will make your time in the market place an enjoyable experience for everyone.

1) You've taken the time to go into a market place with many different vendors and types of products.  It is really a waste of time for you to speed through the place without really looking around and seeing what there is.  Who knows, you may just miss something you've been looking for or had an idea of buying for awhile.  Take your time, enjoy the experience.

2) You spend the whole time talking on a cell phone or texting, etc and you don't really "see" anything.  Again, what's the point of being there if you're not going to mentally be there?  Many vendors have put in time and effort to create a nice presentation of their products.    It's nice if you could at least take the time to pay attention.

3) We look with our eyes, not our fingers.  There's a little rule we should have learned as children.  Yet all too often people are not only not guiding their children in a market, they are just as guilty of handling and rummaging everything they see.

It's fine if you want to see something that interests you more close up.  However, just grabbing and touching everything absentmindedly or letting children roughly "play" while you don't pay attention to them is a recipe for trouble.

It's far too easy for careless hands to accidentally break something that they shouldn't have been touching in the first place.  Remember, if you break it, you bought it.

4) Unfortunately, more and more flea markets are starting to look like over grown yard sales and second hand stores.  Part of this is due to the increased awareness and popularity of the "Storage Wars" activity of people buying out the contents of storage unit auctions when people have abandoned or can't pay for their stored items.

The real problem here is that customers walking through these flea markets now expect every vendor to haggle and drop prices to used or pre-owned product levels.

Many vendors though are still selling brand new and often custom made products that don't warrant such pricing as the second hand vendors and it is considered very rude to expect vendors of new and custom products to sell for the same pricing as those who sell pre-owned/used stuff.

Please pay attention to what kind of vendor you are interacting with and act accordingly.

5) Most markets have many different people, sometimes from different places and speaking originally different languages.  In the U.S.  most flea markets don't care if you speak another language, but most require that at least English is spoken.  This isn't always the case, but as the old saying goes, "When in Rome..."  Most vendors have the sense to speak English themselves or have someone with them who does.

However, there are occasions where a vendor does not speak English or have someone with them who does.  This does not mean you as a customer need to create a scene, cause a disturbance or berate loudly vendors (or other customers for that matter) who do not speak English.

Please feel free to take your concern to the manager of the marketplace.  you do not have to give any particular vendor your business, so don't, but please don't make the whole marketplace un-enjoyable because of your concern with one vendor.

If you keep an open mind, stay aware and mind your manners, the marketplace can be a fun and interesting place for you and everyone else.