Things Not to Do
at a Craft Market
(As a Customer)

You showed up. Good. That part matters. But showing up is the floor, not the ceiling.

There’s a whole list of things people do at markets that make vendors want to fold their tables and go home forever. This isn’t a callout of bad people. Most of you are just unaware. So here it is, plainly, from someone who has been on the other side of the table since 2021.

Picking up every single item, turning it over, putting it down, and walking away is fine once. It’s a pattern when you do it at every table for three hours. Vendors notice. We also can’t say anything because you’re a potential customer and capitalism has us hostage. Handle things with intention. If you’re not buying, that’s okay — but you don’t need to physically inspect every item to decide that.

This one will never not sting. When you ask a maker to charge you less for something they designed, sourced materials for, produced by hand, priced carefully, and hauled to a market at 7am — you are telling them their work isn’t worth what they say it is. You wouldn’t walk into Target and ask them to knock $4 off a candle. Don’t do it here. The price is the price.

We know. Amazon also doesn’t pay vendors fairly, destroys small businesses, and has labor practices that should keep you up at night. If cheaper is your only metric, this isn’t the ecosystem for you. No judgment — but be honest about what you’re optimizing for.

And then not come back. We’ve all done it. Just buy the thing if you want it, or don’t. We’re not a layaway counter and we don’t have infinite table space to hold a maybe.

Unless you have a platform that reaches the vendor’s target audience and you’re being genuinely transparent about it — no. “I’ll post about it” is not currency. Exposure doesn’t pay vendor fees.

If you found us at a market, loved our stuff, and then went home and bought from our website — thank you, genuinely. But don’t DM us asking why shipping is $6. You just got to handle the product in person for free. That’s the service.

Sometimes the conversation is genuinely the connection, and we mean it when we say we love that. The banter, the shared taste in music, the rabbit hole about your dog — that’s part of why we do this. But if there are three other people standing in the booth waiting to ask a question or make a purchase, wrap it up. We can’t tell you to leave. We will absolutely think about it. Read the room, let us do our job, and come back when it’s quieter if you want to keep talking.

Some vendors are fine with it. Some aren’t. When in doubt, ask. Taking photos of someone’s handmade products to recreate them, source them elsewhere, or just collect without credit is a thing that happens. It’s not flattering. It’s extractive.

Okay — you’re allowed to just look. Markets are community spaces and not everyone can spend money every time. But if you can spend, do. Even a $5 sticker. Even a card. The math of a market day is brutal: vendor fees, gas, packaging, setup time, the physical labor of hauling and assembling and breaking down. The people at those tables aren’t hobbyists selling crafts for fun (or if they are, they still deserve fair exchange). They’re running businesses. Treat them like it.

But here’s one to add to your list —

This one isn’t a “don’t” — it’s the thing that costs you nothing and means everything. Action shots. Flat lays. The sticker on your water bottle. The shirt you wore to the concert. Post it, tag the maker, tell people where you got it. Vendors reshare that content, it reaches new audiences, it builds community — and not for nothing — you’ll usually end up on their page too. It’s the closest thing to free marketing that actually works, and it comes from real people who actually bought the thing. That’s worth more than any ad we could run.

Here’s what this comes down to: craft markets only exist because vendors keep showing up. Vendors only keep showing up if it’s worth it financially and energetically. You — the customer — are a direct part of whether this ecosystem survives. That’s not guilt. That’s just how it works.

That’s it. That’s the whole ask.

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