I am the woman walking towards your stall with about three seconds of attention going spare. This is what happens in those three seconds.

I go to markets most weekends across the South East. Car boots in a wet field, covered markets on a quiet Tuesday, the little Saturday ones in town squares. I am not a business adviser and I have never run a stall in my life. What I have is the other side of the table.

So I wrote down twelve stalls. Four I stopped at. Eight I walked straight past. I have said honestly why, and for the eight I have said the one small thing that would have got me. None of it costs anything much. Most of it costs nothing at all.

What is in it

  • Twelve real stalls, and the three seconds I spent deciding on each one
  • The four I stopped at, and what they were doing that the others were not
  • One small free change for each of the eight I walked past
  • The five things that came up again and again

Send me the guide

Put your name and email in and I will send it over. You will also get my occasional email for stallholders: what I notice, what is working, nothing else. Unsubscribe any time and I will not be offended.

Free. A PDF, about twenty minutes to read. No charge, now or later.

Who is writing this

Lucy Harper

I am Lucy. I am 28 and I live in Hastings. I spend my weekends at markets and car boots, I never spend much, and I almost always come home with something worth talking about. I have no stall of my own and nothing to sell you here. I am just the person you are hoping walks over.

One page out of it

A small handwritten card propped against a jar of honey
Nine words in biro, propped against a jar. That did more than the honey did.

Send me the guide