roadside honesty box - worth the hassle?

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roadside honesty box - worth the hassle?

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celestialspore

Joined: 27 Jul 2010
Posts: 26
Location: Aberdeenshire

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 11:23 am Post subject: roadside honesty box - worth the hassle?
Does anybody have any experience with a small stall selling things with an honesty box at the side of the road? Are they worth it, are people generally honest, and what did you sell? I have been thinking about trying to sell cut flowers, but not sure if it would be worth it?

Bebo

Joined: 21 May 2007
Posts: 12590
Location: East Sussex

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 11:28 am Post subject:
Yup. Eggs, plants, cut flowers (sweet peas mostly), homegrown fruit and veg and logs. Mostly honest but you get the odd one or two. Just don't out too much out at once and empty the box fairly regularly and you minimise the risk.

chez

Joined: 13 Aug 2006
Posts: 35935
Location: The Hive of the Uberbee, Quantock Hills, Somerset

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 11:29 am Post subject:
Eggs, it's working fine so far on the basis Bebo's described.

chicken feed

Joined: 27 Aug 2009
Posts: 2677

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 12:06 pm Post subject:
i use a honesty box for the eggs works well here

perlogalism

Joined: 27 Nov 2009
Posts: 440
Location: Near Welshpool

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 12:24 pm Post subject:
Fine for Eggs and Strawberry plants. We've found the odd foreign coin but no money has been taken as far as we know. I guess it very much depends where you live: An honesty box wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes back in London

bagpuss

Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 10507
Location: cambridge

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 1:04 pm Post subject:
An interesting psychological tip for an honesty box, associate it with a picture with eyes on it, say a photo of you or a cartoon person or something similar and apparently it improves peoples rate of honesty as they think they are being watched

Becki

Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 6293
Location: Devon

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 4:29 pm Post subject:
I have a honesty box for eggs outside my house. Every now and then some get stolen, or the money does if I havn't picked it up quick enough. I figure if they're sad enough to steal a box of eggs, they must need it more than I do.

derbyshiredowser

Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Posts: 980
Location: derbyshire

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 5:30 pm Post subject:

bagpuss wrote:

An interesting psychological tip for an honesty box, associate it with a picture with eyes on it, say a photo of you or a cartoon person or something similar and apparently it improves peoples rate of honesty as they think they are being watched

Round here they would nick the photograph as well

kirstyfern

Joined: 03 Jan 2010
Posts: 1574
Location: Great Dunmow, Essex

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 6:06 pm Post subject:

Becki wrote:

I have a honesty box for eggs outside my house. Every now and then some get stolen, or the money does if I havn't picked it up quick enough.
I figure if they're sad enough to steal a box of eggs, they must need it more than I do.

Ditto - nothing for ages then 5 boxes of eggs disappeared friday night

Ecocentric

Joined: 14 May 2009
Posts: 93
Location: Western foothills of the Cambrians

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 6:15 pm Post subject:

Our local Farm Kiosk has had their cash box stolen a couple of times which is seen as unusual in this area. The last time, in 2009, there was a wonderful comment put on the explanatory note - "It must have been a passing MP"..

They now have a biscuit tin for small change and a bolted down cash box with a slot for notes and �1 & �2 coins - seems to have worked so far..

A dummy (or working) cctv camera could well be effective..IMHO..

tarabella

Joined: 04 Nov 2009
Posts: 141
Location: Southam, Warwickshire

Posted: Thu Apr 14, 11 6:22 pm Post subject:
We sell eggs at the gate with an honesty box and we've had no problems so far

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Thu Apr 21, 11 7:53 am Post subject:

It obviously depends on the area that you live in, but having said that, it only takes one thieving scrote to ruin things.

I went for a walk down the back lanes near us yesterday and a lady has a little alcove in here stone wall where she sells her eggs. It looked a little like the shrines that you see on the continent, it looked lovely and was surrounded by honeysuckle. I was also comforted to see that she was selling her eggs at the same price that I do and that I'm in a much better selling position than she is.

davidtorbitt

Joined: 17 Apr 2011
Posts: 67
Location: Bedford

Posted: Thu May 05, 11 2:38 pm Post subject:
We had one to sell our surplus eggs WITH an explanation that all proceeds would go to Help For Heros. First the eggs were stolen, then the money, and wait for it, wait for it... somebody wrecked our honesty box itself... presumably because there was no money or eggs in it... Don't come and live in Bedford, it's not a very nice place....

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