We're having a fleemarket this weekend, fundraising event for the school orchestra. Preparation started yesterday.
I got up to the school around 08:30. We're quite much behind, compared to previous fleemarkets, still lots of things to do before the opening (at 11:00).
This is a raclette set. It's brand new, but missing a box. I'm not really sure what to do with it, very difficult to sell things that consists of several parts on this fleemarket - people are messing so much up.
This is an ancient hair-drier. I don't remember what we sold it for, but it got sold. If I would have had more time, I would have assembled it.
Ten minutes until it opens. There is quite some queue.
We were quite few people today, but luckily there appeared some more heads just before the opening, so we were like four persons on my department - one to let people in, one to let people out and two for selling things.
The next half hour was intense. The first people to enter are often like savages. We had a guy standing in the door trying to restrict the number of people coming in at once, but I forgot to tell him how few people I wanted. Our profit gets quite much higher if there aren't more people in the room than what we can keep an eye on in the start - they come in a hurry, lift up everything, look at it, put it down at some random place. They break things. They try to collect as much as they can carry, hoping to get a very big discount for buying lots of things ... and leave everything at some random place if we won't sell the things at 10% of the price we want. They rip off the price labels, and haggles for a very low price, if one of us tells one price, they will find another one and ask for a new quote. If we get in brand new stuff and try to keep it in the box, they will open the box and spread everything all around. If the price label is on the box, you can be sure they will leave the box and instructions and spare part, bring the item over to the other side of the shop and hope to get it for a cheap price. People are even stealing items. I get so angry sometimes ... why can't people just behave a bit?
Sorry for being a bit of a racist ... but this is not much at all of a problem with the native ethnic Norwegians. We don't have much of a culture of haggling in Norway - but in some cultures it's somewhat a sports to get things as cheaply as possible. Some cultures may not understand the whole fundraiser concept, possibly they believe we put the money into our own pockets. Some people (but I believe they aren't that many) just can't afford the prices. Beggers can't be choosers - I usually tell people to get out and come back later if they want things cheaply. Towards the closing time we often get visit from people intending to export things to Africa. That's nice, they usually pick quite much stuff, and they are often willing to pay more than the worst of the hagglers.
The most valuable things disappeared within half an hour. The photo below was taken 11:35, and perhaps more than 2/3 of the original content in this corner is gone.
We often get in a typewriter or two. This one didn't work very well. Typewriters are popular among the children, nice old-fashioned toy. Oh, I also loved the typewriter when I was a child.
This is the most fancy calculator I've seen ... at least the most fancy I've seen today. Leather (or perhaps plastic) cover, with a solid notepad and the keys embedded in the cover.
At 16 we closed the doors.
Apparently the raclette set was sold ... or maybe stolen ... but still the user instructions and two parts are left.
The red phone also got sold, but none of the others ... as expected.
We've gotten in some more stuff to sell for Sunday, here I've started to stack it up.
We have much less things, and now I also have more time. I usually hang up the lamps that are designed for hanging ... but it's lots of work. I don't know if it's worth the effort ... but at least I feel better with those lamps hanging than lying around.
It's 20:00 and I'm leaving. I've been working almost without breaks since 08:30 in the morning.
The opinions are a bit divided on weather we should throw things or give them away for free if we can't get it sold for a reasonable price. I do favor the approach done by the book department, throw the books out and put up a poster with the text "GRATIS":
All photos available in better resolution on IPFS QmeJwN3NbDorqRWBmJhjGmMbkG9tt17enGCQUAte9EfXiu. License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Great snapshot of life in Oslo! I respect that you work so hard on the weekend to give these goods new life away from the trash bin.
That's an interesting point about the haggling; it's not racist to observe this, I believe it's a culture conflict and in a culture with haggling, even when both people expect it things can get really intense. When the seller doesn't expect it, it would certainly feel obnoxious, I know I feel very uncomfortable with haggling as I simply have no experience in it.
That said, it's nice that at least those intending to export to Africa help clear things out without clubbing your fundraiser's chances.
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Aw, it's terrible that people would take it apart and leave it so that the person who did buy it didn't get the whole thing. I would maybe emphasize that it is to raise funds for a good cause. Then maybe they would be more considerate. I know haggling is a cultural thing or not, but they could at least leave it put together! I hope you raised lots of funds, anyway.
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We got less than previous year, but we're not unhappy with the results - this weekend we had competition from other fleemarkets at other schools, and we were also a bit underhanded, so the weaker results are as expected.
When counting the total amount of volunteer work divided by the net income, it seems like it would have been more profitable to just drop the flee market and increase the membership fees. However, many parents (and particularly at my end of the town) probably can't afford a higher membership fee, hence those fundraising events are important to keep an economic diversity in the musical orchestra.
It seems like the results are not good enough, so now we are also supposed to sell lottery tickets. I hate that, I don't consider it useful work to push lottery tickets, I don't find it proper to push lottery tickets, I don't like pushing lottery tickets, and I'm concerned that there is overhead involved (paying for the prizes, the printing of the lottery tickets, etc). At least, the lottery sales is something I can pay myself out of ...
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Oh I'm sorry. :(
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That's amazing fleemarket on the weekend @tobixen😉
If I near of there I also want to visit to look up some good things there! And about the people look up and leave in the same random place, I know that is a risk of seller but I think the costumer also must have a little bit good behave when they comes there😔
I also often seen here, many costumer only ask, try and leave the thing without care about to put it back😐
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Yeah, people can really mess up the home bazaar scene. They just pick up and keep the back without minding where they picked it up. Not to mention the fact that there are a few grabby hands too, those who pick but don't pay kind ;-)
Still all things considered your haul was quite large and distributed over a big area so there were few glitches that were bound to happen. Still I see your point that sometimes the things just don't go as planned.
Hope the rest of the giveaway (if you decide to do it) goes well too. Hang in there man.
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I couldn't imagine that there is that much work to be done for such an event. It seemed way more easier when I saw your youngest daughter in the pictures arranging stuff on the benches.
The part of racism I can understand perfectly. I am somehow racist with my own native culture as it is "not that elevated" to consider these kind of markets as a fund raising for a cause.
Over all you've done a pretty good job and...in my opinion you should give the left object for free. I'm sure the next year you will have more "new stuff" to sell at the fleemarket.
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Interesting to think at haggling isolated, in many cultures, is just a part of establishing a relation between the seller and buyer.
Many people don’t like the Fixed rate price you find I modern societies, because you don’t have an incentive to start a relation, you just stroll around and look at the prices. They feel it is “cold” to walk in big arena shops, etc.
Personally I love walking in old street Kairo, small avenues, small shops, haggling is everywhere, you feel alive.
How was the fundraising communicated? Explicit enough? Think maybe most people just hear the word “flea market” = cheap stuff
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Absolutely.
Haggling can be a good thing in many contexts, and maybe particularly at the flee market. However, there is good haggling and there is bad haggling.
Picking up lots of stuff, where some of them even have price labels, without having any intention on paying even half of the labelled price - and putting down the things on a random place when they can't get it to the price they want.
Picking the best things and expecting to get them for a quarter of the labelled price right after opening time, when there are lots of other people wanting the same things
Wasting our time on prolonged haggling just when we're stressed with too many customers
Not accepting a "no" for a "no", and spending a lot of time trying to get it cheaper.
Most people behave, but those that don't can really make a dent on our good mood.
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Perhaps it's undercommunicated, and we have been talking about it earlier, maybe it needs to be more clear. For the native Norwegians it's pretty obvious as those fleemarkets are quite typical activities (I even think we have some laws in place protecting this kind of volunteer flee markets), hence we probably don't bother announcing it very much. For the immigrants, it may not be so obvious.
I also came to think, after all we're not exactly collecting money for starving children ... we're collecting money for musical education for our own children. Is that too much different from putting money into our own pockets? For some of the immigrants, experiencing real poverty at home, it may not seem entirely fair.
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Day by day world is changing.
All are being update…Almost everyone get the touch of technology. Every product have some revolution not only phone.
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what is it. something on the grill?
on the racist thing no u are not. a have workt in a bike store in oslo and its
always non Norwegian ho is complaining on the price. or almost always. over the years a have kick out a few over it. but most people are nice.
nice of u to work on this a most of us dont take the time to jone this work in the weekend.
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I don't know much about raclette, but this was near the top of a quick google search: https://www.tine.no/osteriet/artikler/mett-med-raclette
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Hi i dont know who you are but i just came across your post and i must tell you i appreciate what you're doing, i deal with these kinds of fund raising and outreaches and i know how people can be, it requires a lot of patience and love and self control, thank you so much for what you do i wish you more strength
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A great reason for doing this and I did not realise how challenging fundraising can be. Well done for contributing your time and effort.
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We are not professionals, and eventually we decide what to sell things for. Sometimes things go to waste because we set the price too high, other times things are sold far too cheaply because we just don't have a clue.
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sounds like a lot of work :p
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Prior was awesome . Great looking phone .
Telephone are different from now .
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It's the second day and I'm with you brother in this great initiative for poor people <3
I really want to be a part of it, I want to come there to support with you but it's not possible for me this time :(
If I was there I'll definitely I'll be a part of this great initiative <3
Hats off to you and your team <3
I wish i could be a part of your team :(
My prayers with you brother <3
God Bless you <3
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Interesting to read the detailed report about the fundraising for the school orchestra @Tobixen
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