Ren Stuff: Hawking Etiquette
After this weekend at faire I just wanted to take a moment to talk to people about something very dear to my heart (mainly cause it's what I do) and that would be hawking.
(For those unaware, hawking is the act of drawing someone into your shop. It's used for shows and food stuffs too, but my focus here is on the shops.)
Just a few things here to keep in mind, when doing such things.
Although you are competeing for monies, when drawing people into your shop, you should are not in direct competition with your neighbors. You should NEVER snipe customers from someone elses shop. Whether this is indirectly, (drawing the attention of someone who is about to enter another shop) or directly (walking over and grabbing someone arm who is looking at someone elses wares and taking them into your own shop), this is a major no-no.
Unless there has been some rather bad planning, you shouldn't be set up next to someone else with similar wares. Get to know the other shops around you, so you can work with them. This past faire, the jewelry shop I work for was set up across the street from a sword shop. Their hawker and myself worked it out between us that I'd (generally) send the males his direction and he'd (generally) send the females our way. "Yes ladies while your men look at the sharp pointies, please feel free to come over here and look at our pretty shinies."
You should never bust out with something like "Ours are shinier and prettier!" or "No no, don't go there, come in here instead!" That's just plain rude.
Speaking of acceptable hawks: Stealing hawks happens. Someone gets somethign that works, you want to use it too. That's, well, okay, to me it's fine to steal general hawks. Non specific ones. But when you do, please, please, don't parrot them directly after the one you're stealing from. There is nothing more irritating then getting out a nice loud call for business, and then hearing the EXACT same phrase being yelled out across the street, almost immediately.
(Side note: Some hawks are very specific, whether to the item, or to the person. Generic hawks are widely usable. But a lot of the prop bits tend to be rather... personal. In my personal opinion, such things should be left along, at the very least please don't copy them at the same faire as you learned them)
Which brings us to: Don't hawk over people. Whether there is a stage act going on nearby, or simply some one else in the lane, if they're yelling, the time for you to start yelling is after they have finished, not during. If everyone yells at the same time, it just gets confusing.
Let me see, what else.
Appropriateness! De3ar god people, this is a family show! Please do not be yelling curse words or crude jokes. Yes, some people can pull off a rude character. You'll notice most hawkers who do this ingage in some form of tact. it's "M'lady! Might I interest you in some sweet silver to adorn they bounteous... shelfing?" not "Hey lady, this necklace would look great on yer ginourmous tits!"
Mark boundaries. This can be VERY important when you have several aggresive hawkers in the same area. General rule of thumb: The area you should be working in extends out to about the middle of the street, and to the beginning of the booths to either side of you. (Granted, that posits booths to the left right and across the street of you, but that's the general gist.) Depending on the flow of customers, these boundaries vary. Although personal opinions vary as to how far you should be able to go to grab a customer, I generally like to wait until they're close enough that you aren't keeping them from seeing another booth.
I think that's most of it? I'll pop in with more if I remember anything. Feel free to add on or ask questions, or whatever you want. I'm pretty easy going.
(For those unaware, hawking is the act of drawing someone into your shop. It's used for shows and food stuffs too, but my focus here is on the shops.)
Just a few things here to keep in mind, when doing such things.
Although you are competeing for monies, when drawing people into your shop, you should are not in direct competition with your neighbors. You should NEVER snipe customers from someone elses shop. Whether this is indirectly, (drawing the attention of someone who is about to enter another shop) or directly (walking over and grabbing someone arm who is looking at someone elses wares and taking them into your own shop), this is a major no-no.
Unless there has been some rather bad planning, you shouldn't be set up next to someone else with similar wares. Get to know the other shops around you, so you can work with them. This past faire, the jewelry shop I work for was set up across the street from a sword shop. Their hawker and myself worked it out between us that I'd (generally) send the males his direction and he'd (generally) send the females our way. "Yes ladies while your men look at the sharp pointies, please feel free to come over here and look at our pretty shinies."
You should never bust out with something like "Ours are shinier and prettier!" or "No no, don't go there, come in here instead!" That's just plain rude.
Speaking of acceptable hawks: Stealing hawks happens. Someone gets somethign that works, you want to use it too. That's, well, okay, to me it's fine to steal general hawks. Non specific ones. But when you do, please, please, don't parrot them directly after the one you're stealing from. There is nothing more irritating then getting out a nice loud call for business, and then hearing the EXACT same phrase being yelled out across the street, almost immediately.
(Side note: Some hawks are very specific, whether to the item, or to the person. Generic hawks are widely usable. But a lot of the prop bits tend to be rather... personal. In my personal opinion, such things should be left along, at the very least please don't copy them at the same faire as you learned them)
Which brings us to: Don't hawk over people. Whether there is a stage act going on nearby, or simply some one else in the lane, if they're yelling, the time for you to start yelling is after they have finished, not during. If everyone yells at the same time, it just gets confusing.
Let me see, what else.
Appropriateness! De3ar god people, this is a family show! Please do not be yelling curse words or crude jokes. Yes, some people can pull off a rude character. You'll notice most hawkers who do this ingage in some form of tact. it's "M'lady! Might I interest you in some sweet silver to adorn they bounteous... shelfing?" not "Hey lady, this necklace would look great on yer ginourmous tits!"
Mark boundaries. This can be VERY important when you have several aggresive hawkers in the same area. General rule of thumb: The area you should be working in extends out to about the middle of the street, and to the beginning of the booths to either side of you. (Granted, that posits booths to the left right and across the street of you, but that's the general gist.) Depending on the flow of customers, these boundaries vary. Although personal opinions vary as to how far you should be able to go to grab a customer, I generally like to wait until they're close enough that you aren't keeping them from seeing another booth.
I think that's most of it? I'll pop in with more if I remember anything. Feel free to add on or ask questions, or whatever you want. I'm pretty easy going.