Crazy is in the Air!

Crazy is in the air!  I thought maybe it was just in the air around the antique world in Georgia, but apparently, it's in the air all over.  The vintage business is hot and trendy.  Everybody and their brother thinks they need to open a shop, even if there are already 10 shops in the area, which is inconsiderate and just plain stupid. It's also asking for trouble.  With every new shop that opens, the competition gets a little harder, which is stressful.  The over-saturated market is bad enough, but what's worse is the witchy behavior.  I've come across some people lately who are racking up some major bad karma points with their ugly behavior.

My apologies to Veronica Lake, who played a very
nice witch in her 1942 movie, "I Married a Witch"

I've met loads of "fun-crazy" types since I've been in the business.  But 2014 seems to be the year of lunatic, watch-your-back, "OMG,-I-cannot-believe-they-did-that" kind of crazy.

I've seen a few crazy situations locally and have had quite a few Vintage Show Off fans message me privately for advice with truly insane situations. It's so sad.  We should all be having fun, right?

We all need to choose carefully who we associate with. We should all try to do what we love and surround ourselves with people who are supportive.

If you are in a bad situation, but desperately need the money, be very active in looking for a better situation, even if it's not selling vintage wares.  If you desperately need the money, you probably should be doing something a little more reliable.  There's not a lot of money in running a booth.  You know that, right?  

If having a booth is more about having a hobby you love and/or earning a little extra pocket money, then get the heck away from lunatics and go to a mall that's happy and "normal", even if it has less traffic.   Once you get to the happy mall, do what you can to make it more successful.  Pitch in a little!   Help them market. Help promote them on Facebook, even if it's just by leaving comments and sharing posts.  Help decorate now and then.  Be a friend to your fellow vendors.  If your help is valuable and goes beyond pitching in a little, maybe the nice owner will appreciate it enough to compensate you with reduced rent.

Mean behavior shouldn't be tolerated.  I don't think we should just stand by and keep quiet.  Isn't that enabling the bad behavior?  If you stay where things are bad and/or keep quiet when you see wrong being done, then you are pretty much saying you are OK with it.

If it's the store owner or manager who is bad news, keep in mind that as they go down, your booth will go down, too. They may go down swiftly (like in a lawsuit) or they may just see a steady decline, which they will conveniently blame on everything but themselves.

Thankfully, all the owners and most of the vendors I work with directly are good, decent people who try to do the right thing.  If they weren't, I promise, I'd be gone so fast, you'd think my super-hero power was speed.

One more thing just to clarify.  We can't demand perfection.  Pretty much every person on earth has their faults. (If you think a person has no faults, you probably just don't know them well enough.) Even a person who tries really hard to be good will have a lapse in judgement from time to time.  Don't expect your mall owner or fellow vendors to always do what you think is the perfect thing.    The behavior I'm referring to in this post is mean-spirited.  Stay far away from that!