Elle in Brentwood

Today I was at the Brentwood farmers market; I haven't been there since late last year because of my schedule and the market manager was accordingly frosty because I had been away, I guess (that didn't stop me from having a great day!). Elle Magazine was at the market today with a beautiful booth, and Jennifer McColm and I bookended them; Elle had a bunch of cool eco-chic products, eco-nail polish and snacks, and Birkenstocks. They were even doing free polish changes, and that was very tempting but I was worried about missing sales. Check out the new Birkenstock Madrids; they are very nice and selling very well in Europe. They have a lot of freebies, so come back next weekend for lots of Burt's Bees lip balm and other goodies.

Today I had a new batch of colored net bags, and they sold very well. I dyed them last evening, so this morning they were still a little damp. I decided to hang the large ones up to dry, on the canopy, by the drawstring. Hey, why not? Imagine we are in Europe and we line dry as much as possible to save energy costs. Shoppers were able to look at all of them that way, and appreciate the coloring. It was like a rack of clothing, go ahead and paw through it! People were buying baskets, then picking a net bag or 3 or 5 to color coordinate. Some women wanted a basket for their kids' swim lessons, and took net bags to identify each child's swim suit or other stuff; pink for their daughter and orange for their son etc. Other shoppers wanted to color-code which produce they were going to buy. One shopper on a bike buys fish every week at the market, so he bought one in a cetain color so he would not have to accept another plastic bag. People really don't need much suggestion, they know immediately what they want to do.

I had a lot of merchandise today, and many shoppers had a tough time making a choice. One shopper couldn't decide between the pink, yellow and orange St. Tropez. Her darling little daughter was having a great time, sort of the same game as take all the pots out of the cupboard, but this time it was take all the baskets out of the booth, and pick up as many as we can at once. She was a teeny tiny cute little thing, but she still managed to pick up 4 large baskets at once! Mom bought the pink, then came back a few hours later and exchanged for the orange. It's tough to make a choice; I think she will be back to buy more.

I am a dog person, but I just love these kitty hot mits; they sold very well today; I brought them for mother's day and people loved them.

We will be back at Brentwood next Sunday. Today reminded me how much I still like this market. The crowd was very interesting, eclectic, and wanted to be informed. I discussed the plastic bag situation with dozens of people; I love it that people care about the issue and want to know where the State is headed.