To think that most christmas markets are having us over

[sunintheeast]

Not bah humbug I love christmas but was at a nice christmas market today.. mostly food.. some makers stalls but my God the price hike.. bought two wraps which were no shred (haha) of a lie like those starters on a chinese resteraunt.. but a single wonton wrap with a teaspoon of meat and a bit of relish.. FOR £24 QUID. I stupidly paid before seeing it and then felt daft and said thankyou.. literally two bites each... the place was heaving.. is it just me??.. £7 hot chocolate anyone ?? looked around..its all gone insane. There were a couple of reindeer looking sad in a pen but it just felt like it's all gone a bit mad. I like supporting local but ,.. anyone else feel the same ??

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!

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.

The enshittification of life continues apace.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 😂

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.

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!😂

Christmas Markets Managers Meeting

YANBU

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

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.

You’re not wrong

Birmingham Christmas market feels like it’s exactly the same from one year to the next . Same stalls in the exact same positions selling the same shit . The same min events right in the middle of, the same position for the big wheel and the ice rink . Nothing ever changes . It needs to be given a massive shake up coz along with the recent security risks of being in the city ,it doesn’t seem to be the same anymore yet it’s the exact same in every other sense:

Yes, toot and tat from China, tied up in Christmas wrapping and food costing more than a weekly shop!

Been to Stratford Xmas market today and it was rammed, could barely get to the stalls and then when we did it was either extortionately priced or the same stuff on multiple stalls.

I'd love a Christmas market where you could wander and buy unique gifts for people.

In reality they all seem to be stalls selling Temu style tat and fast food to eat now, like German sausages and things on sticks.

I'm in Lincoln. The Xmas market used to be amazing, but the council made a loss every year, so they've binned off now.

I think these things have had their day. We can all see we are being ripped off and it ruins the Xmas vibe.

I visit a craft fair near us every year. It is in a small village hall, and yes, there is always a plethora of scented candles, random smelly lotions, wooden whatnots, silver earrings and a huge quanttity of crocheted tree ornaments & bobble hats, but there is also a stall run by a woman who makes the most amazing chutneys. I go just for that.

I went with DD and 3 v young DGC on the train to Birmingham Christmas market a couple of years ago and I'm still traumatised. Thought a train journey would add to the fun. That was our first mistake. It was absolutely heaving, stalls full of overpriced tat and paid £18 for a hot chocolate (£10 returnable deposit for the mug!) which i queued about 45 min for. Then it started to piss down with rain and the train home was cancelled

Never, ever again

Shit in a Shed.

The wet weather here doesn't help, not very atmospheric.

But Winchester is a good one - they don't sell tat and if you avoid the weekends it's not too busy.

Their rents are ridiculous though, I feel for the stallholders.

the Bath market comments sounded encouraging, but I see it only goes until next weekend. Are there any others anyone would recommend that go until Christmas?

No you're not wrong. I like the feel of them though so I tend to buy 1 hot drink, have a meander around them looking at the stalls and then go somewhere else for dinner out.

Ours is meant to be a german market. It even has a greek food stall this year 🤣🤣🤣🤣 very german lol. Ours doesn't even have knick knacks anymore, so it's pretty shit.

And everytime I go it rains 😭