There is a church show that we go to twice a year here in Houston. During the setup of shows, and this one in particular, it can be a chaotic time. During setup, everyone is focused on unloading the myriad of vehicles that seem to be parked everywhere and unpacking the stacks of boxes.

It was evident that the woman behind us was doing a market for the very first time. She was selling homemade chocolate treats. When she unloaded her car, she had coolers full of chocolates, tables, chairs and her tent. However, when she arrived, her tent was still in the box and still sealed. She spent the first hour of her setup opening the box and unpacking her tent. With the assembly instructions in hand, she began to get frantic realizing that her setup time was quickly ticking down and she had no idea how to set up this tent.

What was probably a relatively simple task for her became almost impossible under the pressure that she was under. In the meantime, her chocolates in the coolers were getting warm and beginning to melt in the hot Houston sun. Fortunately, she had some help from other vendors to set up this new tent and get her going.

When she finally got set up, many of her chocolates has melted in the sun even though they were in the cooler, so her display was affected. As a result, she could only fill half of her display. Her display looked barren.

What affected her more, however, was that she had a terrible start to her first market. This rush to get set up took a while for her to recover from mentally and had an effect on her day. Moreover, other vendors were pulled away from their setups to assist her with her tent and it affected them as well.

We haven’t seen her at any markets since.