And they are stealing

[mke]

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUP5bBZk8DQ/

 

This time, Appleboom and others were targeted.

[PAKMAN]

So sad. A number of vendors have stopped going to certain venues due to the number of thefts. 

[inkstainedruth]

Wow!  That's AWFUL!  

I remember some show a few years ago here in the US that had several tables targeted by people with "sticky" fingers.  

A friend of mine (and a fair number of other vendors, as I recall) got robbed at a big SCA event a number of years ago.  It was her first time being a merchant at that, and she had already been pointing out people to someone working for her as they went past the the tent where she was set up, as "SCA... SCA... Tuchux... SCA, townie... SCA".  And she wasn't the only person targeted either (she was in a big tent with a lot of other merchants, and the people in that tent started taking turns sleeping in it overnight) and a guy who was selling jewelry in the other merchant area had something stolen from HIS booth which was on consignment -- which meant not only was he robbed, he had to pay for the item he was selling for someone else.  I heard later in the week that someone had apparently even tried to break into the camp store one night!  At the end of the event merchant liasion from the campground asked her if she was coming back as a merchant the next year and my friend said said, "NO!  I got ROBBED!"  And ironically, it was the ONE night that my friend hadn't taken everything home with her (she has serious health issues and was not staying on site), to set back up at her booth the next morning.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[VacNut]

It’s a bit more work and preparation but perhaps more expensive pens should placed in a case.

There aren’t many other trade or collector fairs that would openly display so many expensive items without supervision.

its more expensive but having more workers may prevent thefts.

[Carguy]

What a shame! I got a table for the first time at the Orlando show and when it was busy, I felt like I needed 8 pairs of eyes to watch everything 

[inkstainedruth]

This thread is starting to make me glad that my husband's sideline business is running a bakery at something down south once a year.  He's been doing it for a number of years now, and the customers are very loyal, and he pays his staff well (well, except for the former head cashier/bookkeeper/head shopper/person making travel arrangements for employees -- aka ME... ).  

On year 8 I put my foot down and said that if I was supposed to be getting a share of the profits, I'd actually like to SEE my share (and got a new laptop out of the deal because the old one was apparently "thrashing").  On year 9?  "Oh your share of the profits are going towards the new roof on the house!" (which six months later, leaked worse than the OLD roof did.... 🤬).  On year 10?  I said, "You know, this is not MY midlife crisis!" and finally got paid something like what his front counter guy/co-driver of the truck rented to haul the appliances and such down to Mississippi and back made.  And I had a very nice discretionary budget for WHATEVER I WANTED!  Which included the M405 Stresemann and the M405 Blue-Black.... 

We did a few one-off shows besides the event in Mississippi, but it just got too complicated.  There was one thing where we were offered a snack bar booth (used the previous few years by someone who got asked by the people running the event to leave) and then about an hour after we got on site, one of the people running the event that year came riding down the hill in a golf car, going, "Not my fault!  Health inspectors coming in 20 minutes!"  And I ran back to the cabin we were staying in to grab my ServSafe card.  And the inspector opened up the commercial grade fridge we brought down, sort of looked up and down and closed the door on it and said, "It's... perfect....."  And someone in with us at that show was muttering under his breath going, "Yes, that's because *I* stocked it!" (his mom ran a tea shop and because she got cited early on for some minor health code infraction, he took it on himself to make sure EVERYTHING in the fridge was on the right order, top to bottom (in case of stuff like leaking packages).  We got a minor ding for NOT having written down where we'd gotten the ice for the chest freezer from (apparently in that county contaminated ice was the main cause of food sickness) but that was about it.  And we did a one-off event outside Indianapolis, which was held at some sort of fairgrounds.  And when the health dept. people showed up?  We explained that one of the fridges in that building didn't seem to be working so we were using it for non-food storage.  And THAT inspector basically said, "Hmmm -- in the past events here have been "self-inspection....  That's NOT going to happen in the future!"

So I stopped going to the thing in Mississippi after year 10, although I keep thinking that some day I might want to go back down just to enjoy the event and NOT work....  Of course, the first year we went down, we were in a panic at the end of the first day we were open, because we'd maybe taken in about $50 in sales (and of course besides the truck and equipment rental and the travel expenses -- I flew down to Jackson and rented a car and drove up to the site from there on top of everything else -- there was the supplies and salaries and such, and we'd rented an RV to stay in and rented this big honking tent to run the booth out of).  But business built up slowly every day.  Then, towards the end of the week, the wind changed and blew over the "battlefield" instead of the rest of the merchant area, and basically STOPPED what was happening and all these people were going, "What am I smelling?  Oh this is soooo wrong!"  And I think we sold something like 200 sausage rolls (think "pigs in a blanket" but with sausages instead of hot dogs) in the next hour.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: He now stores the kitchen equipment on site at the place in Mississippi in a CONEX box, but I worry a little about that because one year there were tornadoes in the area....  We got woken up by an emergency warning on our phones in the middle of the night, and when we turned on the TV in the RV, there was a tornado in the town we did a lot of the shopping runs to, but it was headed southeast, not northeast to where the event was).  But a friend of ours actually had photos on his phone of a twister just across the interstate from where the site is.... 

[mke]

Next one - from the California Penshow

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVCfQxzEg6n/

[Beechwood]

This is a shameful state of affairs and has been going on for too long, I think that Sarj Minhas had some substantial losses a few years ago, I am sure that there are others.

 

So how do you stop it? Some photo ID to be shown as the person enters  that is canned by the organisers? CCTV behind the check in and throughout the room? No-one to pick up pens from the display? Visible security people touring the room?

 

The organisers need to step up before a theft of pens becomes something much nastier, it is happening at many types of shows, including coins and stamps

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srItynSlp0Q

 

 

 

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

I was taught (before attending my first show) to ask permission from a vendor before picking up a pen.  

But then, I wouldn't steal to begin with....  And especially after what happened to my friend, and the guy from IIRC the West Coast who'd had stuff stolen from his booth who had the "consignment" piece stolen from his booth.

But then, there was a story on the noon news a little while ago about some 18 year old guy who had been arrested around here for shoplifting in a local store -- and the cops in several states had been looking for HIM.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth