Sometimes, a vendor will get so mad at seeing you at “his” market that he will try to put you out of business. He has the same merchandise you have and is going to
“kill you off”.
Price wars can be fun.
The buyers love them. The poor vendor who is going to “teach you a lesson” is losing money right and left just to make his point.
I love it.
Often, he doesn’t have enough money to get out of town after the weekend “war”
is over. This is a great time to offer to buy him out at about ½ the wholesale (or less) price!
Some of these vendors are such backstabbing morons that they actually think they won the war! Yes, they may have won the price-war battle that weekend. But, they never won the war.
You are a lot smarter.
Remember those three ammo boxes I told you about. You already have your
money split-up in them. So, you have reserve money to travel on or to set up at the same market next weekend.
No Big deal.
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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One of the best ways to block or prevent a price war is to keep your merchandise covered up on your tables until the last minute. What happens is that most of the vendors do the same thing. They try to go around and see what kind of
competition they have.
If they see the same stuff on your table and check your prices.. well, you know the rest of the story.
This has happened to me a couple of times that I know about and probably a bunch more that I don’t.
One time, I was set up with a lot of Southwestern jewelry. This was back when silver concho “button covers” were hot. They had been placed out early, before the market was open and, of course, the price was in plain view.
There was some early traffic – mostly, vendors wandering around checking for
table swaps. At the same time, they check to see if other vendors have the same merchandise as they do.
I do it too.
I remember it well. A nice looking redhead stopped and checked out the button covers. She asked about the price, thanked me, and walked off. Sales were good that day but no one was buying my button covers. I couldn’t figure it out. At $3
dollars each, they should have sold like hot cakes.
Finally, we got a little slack time near the end of the day. I took a walk to check out the other vendors. Well, you guessed it - about 100 feet down the aisle on the opposite side was a large sign. “Button Covers $2.00! The mystery was solved.
The redhead and her partner were undercutting me and selling theirs for a dollar Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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less! Lesson learned: I should have checked out who was selling what around me before I put my stuff on public display.
You can sometimes stop a price war before it starts. When you make your early morning rounds of the market and you see a strong challenge (I mean a vendor
who has the very same or close-to product) talk to them. See if you can come to a friendly agreement so that both of you hold your price the same.
This works sometimes. They know a price war will hurt their wallet. If they agree and you suspect they are dropping their price behind your back, check it out by asking a customer about the price at the other vendor’s booth. Usually you can ask a customer to do you a favor, even bribe them with a cheap gift or discount to check out the other vendor’s real price.
I’ve always wanted to try this.
Have Some Fun, Start Your Own Price War With Your Partner!
Here’s the plan. You and your partner, (this takes two people on the same team) both rent a separate booth. Not next to each other, but close enough that customers can see each booth; 50 -100 feet apart is plenty of distance. Both of you rent the same size booth and split your merchandise in half. Each displays the same exact products.
Let the fun begin.
Get some poster paper and a magic marker. Write “Price War” as big as will fit on the poster. Clamp it somewhere that the customers can see from a distance.
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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Remember, only one sign up at any one time. Your partner has their sign up for a while. She or he makes a bunch of sales and then takes their sign down.
That is when you put your “Price War” sign up.
You switch back and forth all day long. What fun!
Just remember not to mark your prices down too low. Only do this if it is some dog merchandise that you can’t sell any other way.
Is this legal? Is it fair? What about complaints? I can’t see anything really bad about it. At the worst, if someone complains, so what? Remember, you are your own boss. It’s your stuff and you can sell it, give it away, throw it in the dumpster.
Whatever you want.
Set your own price. If you get some flak, just tell them that you made a bet with your partner as to who is the better salesman and you intend to win the bet.
P.S. If you try this and it works out ok for you, let me know…☺
Copyright © 2004 Larry L. Austin
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