Monday, June 28, 2010

Hangers? Really? NO, REALLY?

No garden pics today... It's been raining off and on all day... a cold front is moving through, tomorrows high temp will be 86 F... brr, break out the sweat shirts... so, no gardening happened today...


So, today, since I couldn't garden, I decided to take some stuff into the flea market for the booth. OK.

So I loaded up my truck... and I have literally hundreds of those plastic store hangers... you know, the ones with the wire hook that swivels around? For some reason, I collect them. I've never figured it out... When I had my own store, they were very valuable. Later, when I decided to cut back on using the clothes dryer, a plastic hanger was perfect for hanging shirts and such in the garage or even off the eaves of the house. (Wire hangers stretch out the shoulders and sometimes leave rust stains.) Here in Texas, air drying is quicker than the dryer anyway... but for some reason, much like when ever I see a still alive plant by the road, whenever somebody cleans out their closet and tosses a box full of these out on the curb on garbage day, I pick it up. Don't take me wrong. It's not a fixation, I don't jump out of bed and go running through the neighborhood in search of hangers. But if I see them, I pick them up.
So, I have, out in my storage shed, tons of these hangers.
So, other dealers at the flea market are always asking to borrow one or two of mine... and I know I'm never going to see it again, but I'll "lend" it to them anyway... I have plenty, right? It's really no big deal...

Well, the other day, someone 'borrowed' one, then I actually saw them writing their vendor number on it, so it'll be returned to their booth after whatever on it is sold... which really pissed me off for some reason. I know, terribly petty of me, but damn... now if they were writing my number on it, so it would go to my booth later, that would be cool, but they're not... They're blatantly laying claim to something that isn't theirs. GRRRRRR
Anyway, I decided that I would just put these hangers of mine, which let's face it, I have way too many off, in bundles of 10 and sell them off, for a buck a bundle. That way, the next time someone wanted to 'borrow' one, I'd just say "actually, I sell them..." They're cheap, I'm not making much money off of them, but I'm not getting pissed off... everything is cool, right?

So, on the way in, I told Joy, the cashier who works on the days that I don't, what was up... and she agreed with me that it was a good idea. Besides, you should always tell the cashier what's up... that way if anybody said they needed hangers, Joy would say, 'Claude's got some for sale in his booth.' And Joy always tells me what's in her booth too, when I'm cashier. It works out well...

So, I sat 8 bundles in my booth, didn't even get them in the basket I was gonna put em in, just laid them on the floor then walked back to the truck to grab something else... and when I got back six bundles were gone. Walked back up front, and Joy was putting them in a bag for a customer. I bought a coke, me and Joy had a bit of a laugh, and then I went back to my booth, and the other 2 bundles were gone...
Who the hell would of thought that bloody hangers would be such a hot item?
Here I've been concentrating on collectables, china, and other items of decorative interest, and what I should have been doing is running around saving the landfills from unnecesary plastic and wire hangers.
Anyway... in the future, the $1 bundles will consist of 7 hangers. Might as well get as much as I can right?

4 comments:

  1. Well! Just leave it to Claude to find a silver lining on a cloudy day. That's one way to "Get'er done". - G

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  2. That's hilarious. I never thought I'd read about plastic hangers on someone's blog.

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  3. Anonymous12:13 PM

    I just walked by someone with 2 large shopping bags from the Container Store containing nothing but....bundles of hangers!

    Nicole

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  4. Oh, you are killin me, Claude! This post made me laugh out loud twice! The thought of you waking up to raid the neighborhood for hangers was so funny! Sounds like there are more people out there who like them as much as you do. Come to think of it, I like this type the best also! My husbands cleaner will not even take the wire ones back!!!

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