It's called the "Vide-Grenier" - literally, "Empty-Attic". It's when whole neighborhoods find stuff they no longer want around the house and then lay out the wares to sell - at dirt cheap prices. Kinda like a yard sale, except it's on a much grander scale because it combines the outputs of the attics of whole neighborhoods at a time. Vide-greniers are so popular that there is even a handbook, by each regional area or department, that lists the dates and the kinds of things being sold (some are exclusively for baby-related things, some are for antiques, etc). I've seen many posters and signs since coming to France, announcing such and such street holding vide-greniers, and we even went to one in Geveze last year (we scored a much coveted stuffed Pikachu for 50 centimes!), but this is the first time we actually decided to participate. It is usually crazy teeming with people.
The night before I encouraged the girls to go through their room and come up with things they no longer play with and no longer want. They had a grand time making a big mess. The loot bag, of things to be sold, was tiny - few English books, assorted Happy Meal toys, ratty hair bands - you get the drift. I went through their things a second time and suggested things they could try to sell, like the dozen naked Barbies (awww no! I like that Barbie! I like this Barbie too! Oh but that is a special Barbie!), stuffed animals (oh no maman! I want to sleep with that tonight!), necklaces that never see the daylight (aww but so-and-so gave it to me!) - I soon discovered that I have two rat-packs. After much urging and begging to no avail, I instilled a notion that if they get rid of toys they never play with anymore, we would make room for new toys that they really want! This seemed to work somewhat and we were able to fill three big shopping bags with stuff to try to sell.
The next morning, we set up with two of our friends - and hawked our wares to passers-by. Manolee insisted on dressing up as a butterfly salesgirl (don't you love it that when you are that young, you have no self-consciousness that inhibits such desires...). The girls were really excited at first, especially when setting out prices for the goods, but soon got bored when nobody seemed to really show interest. Oh there were lots of people looking alright, but I think people are not used to seeing high prices for old Happy Meal toys. I quickly realized that we were being too greedy and made a big sign saying "SALE" and slashed all prices to either 1 euro or 2 euros. But then one of Hana's friends asked me why I was selling dirty things - oy vey, I had forgotten that SALE in French means "dirty" - that sign quickly came down.
By mid afternoon, our goods were moving - though at 1 euro each, the revenues were not much to be impressed about. I also brought out some canneles that I had baked for some friends the night before and those went for 50 centimes each. I made Hana do all transactions, so she got to do some math throughout the day.
Our net takings for the day was some 33 euros (which Hana pocketed - good thing Manolee is still pretty oblivious to anything related to money), plus 7 euros for the canneles. After splitting the cost of the "space" with the friends (3.50 euros each), we had made a net profit!
I think the girls got a taste for making money, but also a taste of what it is like to man a retail store - often a prolonged periods of no customers (boring!) then appealing to seemingly interested customers (smile!) then pocketing the money (ka-ching!). I tried to explain that 33 euros is not 100% profit, since there was the labor costs (the three of us sitting out there from 10 to 4pm) and the cost of goods sold. But Hana was all glazed-eyes through all this capital markets explanations.... but did say that she will look carefully through her room to gather things to sell the next time!
