Hello everyone!
Most of my posts were about soap related questions, and I've received tremendous amount of help from many of you. Many thanks!
Today I am writing about something that has happened at a local craft fair this past weekend. This was my second craft fair, over 20k people attending and there were five other soap vendors. I had no problem being almost sold out, (considering the fact that I make 100+ lbs of soap per day lol), I had to dip into my "wholesale" stockpile, but everything worked out great.
I'll stop patting myself on the back now and will get to the topic of this post:
One of the five soap vendors was a guy who also was selling CP. I understand that he has been in years over 12-15 years and he's the local go to person for CP soap. With all these years in business behind his belt, I would expect for him to act at least a bit more professional. He walked up to every single one of us and openly, in front of our customers bashed our products. He made one poor girl cry because he said that her M&P soap was not a real soap and that she shouldn't continue making it. (the F&^K????) Other sellers suffered from remarks such as: your scents are not strong enough, your lotion bases are pre-made, your soap is too hard and so on. When he came around my booth, he started grabbing my soap, throwing it back on the table, smelling it, almost aggressively. I thought to myself: "what a weird customer", smiled and asked him if I could be of any help (not knowing that he was one of the other vendors). He plainly ignored me for the next couple of minutes, then bluntly asked: "What's your soap recipe?" I pointed to my ingredients list saying that I use all of those oils. "Yeah, yeah, but what's the actual percentage?" - He continued to press me. "Where do you buy you fragrances?" At that point my "bodyguard" looking boyfriend figured out that something was off and responded: "That's our trade secret." The soap guy understood that he won't get much more out of us, smelled a couple of my soaps, threw them back and left without saying anything else. THE NERVE!
Later on I walked around the craft fair, greeted and met other soap makers (made a bunch of friends too
), told them about the weird guy I've met and that's when I found out that I wasn't the only one that suffered the wrath of this soap guy. I went by his booth and stopped by, wanting to say "Hello". He plainly turned his back and ignored me.
I am very friendly and supportive of other soapmakers, I respect them and understand that everyone has a place under the sun. I will always support them and buy their products as well. And once they felt my friendly vibe, a lot of them reached out to me, giving great advices and support.
All except this one prick that has left me raging and seeking justice.
Most of my posts were about soap related questions, and I've received tremendous amount of help from many of you. Many thanks!
Today I am writing about something that has happened at a local craft fair this past weekend. This was my second craft fair, over 20k people attending and there were five other soap vendors. I had no problem being almost sold out, (considering the fact that I make 100+ lbs of soap per day lol), I had to dip into my "wholesale" stockpile, but everything worked out great.
I'll stop patting myself on the back now and will get to the topic of this post:
One of the five soap vendors was a guy who also was selling CP. I understand that he has been in years over 12-15 years and he's the local go to person for CP soap. With all these years in business behind his belt, I would expect for him to act at least a bit more professional. He walked up to every single one of us and openly, in front of our customers bashed our products. He made one poor girl cry because he said that her M&P soap was not a real soap and that she shouldn't continue making it. (the F&^K????) Other sellers suffered from remarks such as: your scents are not strong enough, your lotion bases are pre-made, your soap is too hard and so on. When he came around my booth, he started grabbing my soap, throwing it back on the table, smelling it, almost aggressively. I thought to myself: "what a weird customer", smiled and asked him if I could be of any help (not knowing that he was one of the other vendors). He plainly ignored me for the next couple of minutes, then bluntly asked: "What's your soap recipe?" I pointed to my ingredients list saying that I use all of those oils. "Yeah, yeah, but what's the actual percentage?" - He continued to press me. "Where do you buy you fragrances?" At that point my "bodyguard" looking boyfriend figured out that something was off and responded: "That's our trade secret." The soap guy understood that he won't get much more out of us, smelled a couple of my soaps, threw them back and left without saying anything else. THE NERVE!
Later on I walked around the craft fair, greeted and met other soap makers (made a bunch of friends too
), told them about the weird guy I've met and that's when I found out that I wasn't the only one that suffered the wrath of this soap guy. I went by his booth and stopped by, wanting to say "Hello". He plainly turned his back and ignored me.I am very friendly and supportive of other soapmakers, I respect them and understand that everyone has a place under the sun. I will always support them and buy their products as well. And once they felt my friendly vibe, a lot of them reached out to me, giving great advices and support.
All except this one prick that has left me raging and seeking justice.
