To think that most christmas markets are having us over

You’re not wrong

I went to Bath yesterday. Arrived early doors and it was relatively quiet. Was picking up as I was leaving at about midday.

A lot of things were expensive, but got some gin and some loose leaf tea. I enjoyed having a dawdle round.

Food wise I just went for a hot sausage roll, £4.50 and it was flipping massive - only ended up eating a snack tea.

Totally agree. They feel like a scam to me. Rip off prices, crap quality food and made up traditions.

Christmas Markets Managers Meeting

YANBU

My friend and I went to Winchester last week. She gets a bottle of mulled wine, heats up in the microwave and puts in a flask. Takes to market - doesn't get ripped off!😂

Most of the ones in the UK are just selling tat at massively inflated prices. There emay be the odd exception but most just seem to offer the same mass produced tat, very expensive beer/wine and overpriced sausages you could buy for 20p each in the cash and carry.

Go to Bavaria or Austria if you want to experience a real Christmas market. It's a very different experience.

There seems to be a weird obsession with markets in the UK.
Not just Christmas ones.
So many towns are full of people complaining that their local market "isn't like it used to be" (ie back in the 50s before the supermarket was invented).
Any empty old department stores still hanging around and people say "oh they should put an indoor market in there".
But when a market actually happens.... people complain they're too expensive and/or crap.
I don't think people know what they want 😂

I enjoy a wander around a Christmas market but I rarely buy anything. IME they are now full of a lot of Temu/shein/ Alibaba reselling, 3d printed or cricut items that are priced very high for what they are, very expensive food and drink stalls, wax melts and candle stalls, Scentsy/ tropic skin/ body shop MLM. It's a shame as the lack of variety of stalls makes the market very samey. I often go to york market and I have to say the more quirky/ unusual/ fair price for decent quality item stalls (where there was only 1 of their kind) seemed to make good sales. The price of having a stall is extortionate so that cost is also getting passed on.

I went to a couple of really lovely ones at 2 NT properties and they were brilliant, they had a really good variety of stalls selling really nice quality items at decent prices. They really did have a good balance e.g. they had 2 pet stalls -one did collars, harnesses, dog and cat accessories and the other did pamper items - soaps, nose and paw balm, raw food treats. They had 2 wax melt stalls but they were different in their offers. 2 soap stalls but at different ends of the market and again had different offers, 1 was vegan and very zero waste focused and the other was more pamper and luxury focused. They also had some really beautiful hand crafted items -again all different so bags, woodcraft, jewelry, knitted ect . Sadly one property no longer does it which is a shame as it was very popular and well attended. I picked up a few business cards from that market and have bought from the sellers there since.

The ones in mainland Europe are just as bad (I am not uk based). Eight euros for bread on a stick. High security threat levels are not fun when rammed shoulder to shoulder.

There’s a real push to get us to ‘buy local’. I’d be happy to do that if there were things I wanted and if they were at a price I can afford.

I understand that rent, rates, pitches have all increased in price. There was a time when craft markets and Christmas markets provided something unusual and individual and worth buying. Not so much any more and I’m not going to pay over the odds for things just to support small business. I’ve bought things, in the past, that are really individual, but certainly not the prices for food and drink mentioned.

When I had my independent shop I was "invited" to consider a pitch for the month of our town centre market. The pitch fee was knocking on 1500, and the contract stpulated fines of something like 250 if you didn't open up for any reason / stick to the opening hours etc. Factor in buying extra stock that isn't "price hiked from Temu" or similar, and the fact that most people only want to drink in the "Alpine Bar" and maybe eat an overpriced sausage, and unless you've got several grand knocking around plus staffing costs, it's not worth the risk.

Much like being any kind of small independent outfit these days. The economics just aren't viable.

The enshittification of life continues apace.

I can’t understand why anyone goes to these. They are so crowded you can barely move. All the stalls are repeated every 6 or so.
The prices!!!!
The stalls of ‘craft’ are usually mass produced crap and it’s generally drizzling.
Yet every year they are heaving, then there’s threads about how awful they are!
I went to winter wonderland maybe 15 years ago when I lived in London. That was enough.

I went to a charity one last week and it was very reasonably priced - I don’t think £8 a burger (a decent one) and £4 hot chocolate was bad at all. The stall was local small businesses selling what they have made at brilliant prices. I managed to get a few gifts.
Went to the city one and it was all mass produced crap and the prices of food was ridiculous. We could have had a sit down meal for the same price!

Trouble is now, price exploitation in 'modern' Britain runs in a chain, from the top, Government, councils etc, to the middle, wholesalers, transporters and especially rent/pitch prices, so those actually selling to the public have to inflate their prices to get anything at all................Mind the quoted lacklustre wrap for £24 is taking the you know !

Your charity shop imaginings are a very good trick. Christmas markets have always been absolutely, cynical guff. A massive over-priced exercise in over-consumption. I have (accidentally) wandered through them in Newcastle and Edinburgh and found every aspect of the experience depressing. We have reached peak capitalism and this is how it feels. Empty, soulless, sad. The human spirit deserves and is capable of so much joy. This is not it.

Ditto going to Bath last weekend. My mulled cider was £6 for a small cup though!

The ones on the continent are much better value. It doesn’t work so well in uk for some reason.

I’ve just been to Vienna, it was incredible ! Big mugs of mulled wine for only 4- /5.5 euros .Beautiful stalls selling mostly lovely stuff ( we bought very little )
gorgeous lights , ferris wheels , palace light trails etc , I’d never bother with one here as they look rubbish

It’s OK to just walk around and get a drink/snack from elsewhere.

We were in Bath last week. Crazy busy but the stalls were selling nice locally produced things - as far as I could see there was no temu crap.

We go abroad. Done Vienna and Munich, Lublijana next week.

I couldn’t agree more! The crowds are ridiculous and the prices are overinflated.

I don’t remember them being much of a thing 10+ years ago but now know loads of people that travel to European cities and make a holiday of it. They all come back complaining how busy and expensive it was. Really don’t see the appeal and my kids would hate being dragged around, looking at tat in the freezing cold. It’s a shame that so many of the weekly markets that were in towns up and down the country have stopped. They were actually good and were full of bargains. Councils hiked up the rents and didn’t support them and then wonder why high streets are going to the dogs.

They used to be continental but since Brexit they've become mongers of Temu crap at ridiculous prices. 2 cardboard light shades for £50 anyone?

Theyrenice to walk around but I wouldn't buy anything.