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So my brother's Boy Scout troop does a yard sale every spring to raise money for their large trip in the summer ( I think they're heading to Washington D.C. if I remember right), and every year my father and I go down and help. Mostly because it gives me something to do, and because I get first grabs at the treasures. I was especially excited to go this year because I start my field training for teaching in the fall, so I wanted to see how many teachables I could snag.
Everything they sell is a donation someone gave away, so we get a lot of closet cleaners bringing us our stuff the week before, and then we have to sort it all to make sure it's still sellable.
Despite the rain and the current state of the economy, we had a great turnout and grossed about $8600, about $300 less than last year but still pretty decent. Despite this, we still got our fair share of suckies.
The most common thing I saw was how people decided they would pay. While most of the stuff was marked, we'd ask customers to make us an offer of what they wanted to pay, and we'd make a deal from that. Too many people took advantage of this, and literally pulled whatever pocket change they had out, dumped into my hand, said "This should do," then walked off with whatever they were buying. While I never saw pennies (thank goodness, I'd have had an aneurysm...), dropping $.75 into my hand for that set of flatware was still kind of low.
We also had people who insisted on paying when they left...and never paid. The way our sale was set up, we had different areas, much like a department store ( toys, clothes, housewares, etc.) There was at least one "cashier" stationed at each area, and before you wandered off to another spot, you paid for anything you picked up in that area. Some decided it would be better to pay at the door (like a checkout counter), but when they'd get there they'd say "Oh, I already paid for this" and walk out, so it was hard to catch them and call them out.
The suckiest thing happened just after 3 in the afternoon. We were trying to wrap the sale up, so we got the bright idea of handing out paper bags and offering people to fill them as full as they could, and we'd only charge $2 per bag. People apparently misheard the "per bag" part and decided it was $2 for all bags. When told otherwise, they'd leave the filled bags behind and walk out. They'd usually have 5 bags on them when this happened.
I think I lost the last bit of faith in humanity this weekend...
Everything they sell is a donation someone gave away, so we get a lot of closet cleaners bringing us our stuff the week before, and then we have to sort it all to make sure it's still sellable.
Despite the rain and the current state of the economy, we had a great turnout and grossed about $8600, about $300 less than last year but still pretty decent. Despite this, we still got our fair share of suckies.
The most common thing I saw was how people decided they would pay. While most of the stuff was marked, we'd ask customers to make us an offer of what they wanted to pay, and we'd make a deal from that. Too many people took advantage of this, and literally pulled whatever pocket change they had out, dumped into my hand, said "This should do," then walked off with whatever they were buying. While I never saw pennies (thank goodness, I'd have had an aneurysm...), dropping $.75 into my hand for that set of flatware was still kind of low.
We also had people who insisted on paying when they left...and never paid. The way our sale was set up, we had different areas, much like a department store ( toys, clothes, housewares, etc.) There was at least one "cashier" stationed at each area, and before you wandered off to another spot, you paid for anything you picked up in that area. Some decided it would be better to pay at the door (like a checkout counter), but when they'd get there they'd say "Oh, I already paid for this" and walk out, so it was hard to catch them and call them out.
The suckiest thing happened just after 3 in the afternoon. We were trying to wrap the sale up, so we got the bright idea of handing out paper bags and offering people to fill them as full as they could, and we'd only charge $2 per bag. People apparently misheard the "per bag" part and decided it was $2 for all bags. When told otherwise, they'd leave the filled bags behind and walk out. They'd usually have 5 bags on them when this happened.
I think I lost the last bit of faith in humanity this weekend...
) Couple thieves--mainly stealing toys--and attempted scams.
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