mistakes I have made and wish I could take back

14 years ago

I am my own worst enemy. Here is what happened. In early October I was selling apples at a festival. In years past I could sell 15 bu at this festival. on this day a terrible rain storm breaks out and I have 3 1/2 bushels left over. As I was loading up a guy came up to me and said he wanted to buy all I had left and offered me $50 dollars for all of them and I took it. Thats $15 s bushel 1/3 of regular price. I should have just taken them home and put them in the cooler until next week but I didnt because the cardboard boxes were all wet.

Fast forward to the next week at my regular Saturday Farmers market and guess who shows up wanting apples at $15 a bushel.I say no and he gets all huffy puffy in front of me and makes me feel stupid. Why do I do this to my self!!!

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Comments (5)

randy41_1
14 years ago
you didn't do this to yourself. next time someone gets huffy and puffy stick a pin in them and watch them blow up.
when I'm at the market and someone is looking for a deal I tell them to come back 5 minutes before closing time and I'll discuss bargains with what I have left.
bagardens (Ohio, Zone 5b)
14 years ago
Don't worry too much about it, learn from your mistake and make sure to not do the same thing again. I could have been worse, and it is just one customer. You can never, no matter how hard you try, make every single customer happy every time. Not to say you shouldn't try, just do not drive yourself crazy doing so.

I had a bad similar experience my first year selling, it was I think the second or third time we ever sold at market. Because I work in the mornings I am not able to go to Saturday morning market, so my mom and husband sell. Something happened on that day and (not sure who started it) they started selling things for way cheaper than the prices we had decided to sell them for. When I realized this I was so angry, since especially my mom knew how I felt about doing such a thing. Anyhow after I blew up, I calmed down and told them just to forget about it and never do it again. I was so worried that people would expect to bargain with them. I do not know if any of those people came back expecting lower prices, since I am sure they would not have told me if anyone did.

I have had people get huffy about the price of something, and I ended up dropping the price to the point which it is not cheaper anywhere else and they still do not like it. It is just not worth it to get worried about. If they do not like my prices then they can go to someone else who is cheaper and buy it from them. Chances are it will not be as good a quality and they probably will not have the unusual things that I have, but that is their choice.
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jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
14 years ago
If I drop price to get rid of something. I look right at the person and make sure they are listening and say, "Ok, TODAY ONLY, I will sell you _______ for _____. Don't come back next week and expect such a deal." They always smile and are happy.

I have never had a problem. I don't do it very often.

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myfamilysfarm
14 years ago
Any time I do something like you did, I'm sure to mention that it was a 1 time thing. I even put on my signs "Today's Special xxx". I once had a bunch of watermelon that were not local, so I sold them very cheap because the locals were starting the next week. I also had a person come back the next week expecting the local ones to be cheap. I had to explain that the first ones were a 'clearance' type of item, not bad, just clearance.

Don't beat yourself up, I believe we have ALL done it.
teauteau
14 years ago
Hey Alan,
Take it easy on yourself. I don't think you did anything wrong at all. There are times when it calls for selling something at a discount like you did either out of necessity and/or convenience. The bottom line is, it's your stuff and you can offer it for however much you want. Most intelligent, mature individuals know that if they get a great deal on something one day, they are not necessarily going to encounter the same deal in the future. The guy snapped on you because he couldn't get his way so he tried to intimidate or make you feel guilty. Don't sweat it. There will always be those types. I've offered discounts before and if someone comes up and says, "but you were offering this for...last week" I smile and politely say, "that was last week." Good luck and don't worry about it.

mistakes I have made and wish I could take back

Comments (5)

randy41_1

bagardens (Ohio, Zone 5b)

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