That lunchtime mishap at the Bothell farmers market info booth

Last Saturday I was volunteering at the info booth downtown when the acetate map sleeves got tangled in the new laminator and jammed the whole machine right before the rush. I had to hand-sketch 12 walking route maps on scrap paper while a line formed, and one visitor even snapped a photo like it was a tourist attraction. Anyone else had a simple piece of gear suddenly fail at the worst possible moment, and how did you recover without losing your cool?

1 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

1 Comment

simonh741mo ago

Honestly the gear failing might have been the best thing that happened to that booth. Hand-drawn maps on scrap paper are way more memorable than some laminated sheet everyone glances at and tosses. That visitor who took a photo? They didn't do that because the laminator was working. People love the messy human stuff. A jammed machine forced you to actually talk to folks and slow down, which is kind of the whole point of a farmers market info booth. The line probably moved slower but those 12 people got something nobody else has. Sounds like a win dressed up as a problem.

6