Alice-Azania Jarvis: Posh soaps and shoes walked off my jumble sale stall
In The Red
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Your support makes all the difference.Well, that just goes to show how much I know about capitalism. After all my jumble sale predictions, last weekend's affair was completely and utterly different from the previous one. I'd thought that increasing my CDs and cakes would increase my turnover, since those were the best-selling items last month. Alas, not so: for my second sale, punters moved in entirely the opposite direction. The cakes still sold – especially the chocolate brownies and rocky roads – but even more popular were the posh soaps and vintage shoes and bags, neither of which had proved a hit in the past.
It's funny, really: were people, on the second weekend of March, simply feeling less hungry and more in need of a wash and some new accessories than they were on the first weekend of February? Or were their choices dictated by the fact that my stall, although still in the fashionable confines of Shoreditch's Bar Music Hall, was positioned slightly differently, and my wares laid out at different angles? My soaps, for instance, were all piled up by the till, and so assumed the role that chewing gum or cheap magazines might at the supermarket – they were picked up as my customers paid for whatever else they were buying. In the event, this worked out rather nicely: at £1-£2, the soaps were among the more expensive of my wares.
The shoes were a quite different matter: I honestly don't know why they fared better than last time. Perhaps because they were largely open-toed and it was a sunny day? Or perhaps because all of the rain we have had recently had worn holes in people's existing shoes? Whatever the answer, I was grateful: of all my sellables, the shoes are the most difficult (or, at least, the heaviest) to transport.
In all, I didn't raise quite as much money as last time: £110 to last month's £140 – though that said, it was notably quieter, so I reckon my profit-per-head may have been higher.
I don't have time to do another jumble before the marathon; the rest of my Save the Rhino fundraising is going to have to come from donations. I've got 80 per cent of my online target – though would really like to get over 100 per cent. So, if anyone is feeling generous, and wants to donate a fiver or two to the Rhinos, please do. You can get all the information at www.justgiving.com/alicerunsthemarathon
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