I had a weird experience at Anna's booth at the UW street fair, from start to finish. I think Anna…read moremakes excellent products, but her demeanor makes it hard to buy those products.
Me and my partner are amateur photographers of sorts, and we often go to street fairs to buy local stuff, eat fried food, and take lots of pictures. She and I immediately noticed Anna's knits--they use cute, original patterns and come in fun, vibrant colors. I wanted to take pictures and buy her stuff.
I start taking pictures, and Anna asks, "What are you going to do with those pictures?" And I go, "These are so I know which booths to come back to. I don't have to take any if you don't want me to." She responds, "No, that's okay, but it's nice to ask first."
That was fine. But I was really nervous after that--was it okay to post my pictures to Yelp/Facebook/IG with Anna's business tagged? Could I take pictures of my partner wearing the knit gloves at Anna's shop after we bought them? Why didn't she tell the other people taking pictures on their phones to stop taking pictures? I was a little put off.
But we still wanted to buy something. So we stayed around to look at the different colors of knits. But then we overheard conversations she had with customers. One woman wanted to buy earrings, and the earrings were on labeled cardboard with holes for the earrings to hang on. After she paid for them, Anna asked her if she wanted to wear them out or if she wanted them wrapped up. The woman asked, "Yeah, I want to wear them out, but can I keep the card?" Anna replies, "No, do you want a bag?" The woman responds in a confused way, "Well, no, but I'd like the card." Anna speaks in a forceful way, "I reuse those. Do you want a bag?" The woman nodded, took her really cute earrings, and left.
At some point, my partner decided on something, a pair of cute orange wrist warmers with this awesome pattern that resembled netting. At that point, Anna had left to get something from her car for the booth. She left her friend in charge. We tried to pay for the item we picked, but Anna accidentally took the cell phone she uses to scan credit cards. No big deal. But when she got back, the conversation was weird. Her friend jokes, "These folks want to pay, but you took the register with you." Anna misses the joke, "That's right, I haven't shown you how to use it yet." Her friend looks at her in a confused way. They then start to banter about how even if we had cash, her friend doesn't know where the Anna keeps the cash. I felt uncomfortable, but I spent the $50 anyway.
It was all very odd. I wasn't sure if Anna was being rude, if she was confused, if she's just awkward, or what. All I know is that Anna makes great stuff, my partner isn't quite happy to wear her new armies, and we definitely aren't going to buy any more stuff from Anna's shop. :/