There has been considerable heated discussion on social media about different “smelly” products at markets and their effect on others. Do you sell incense? Are you a candlemaker, or an “e-cig” vendor, or do you have other scented items where that you rely on samples or aromas to sell them? What’s a market organiser to do?

You might have seen a recent article on TV about e-cigarettes lately? There are popular sellers of “E-cig” products in Tasmania who are very clear about only selling products WITHOUT nicotine and they go out of their way to display all the appropriate paperwork, not sell to minors, and must not make any claims of health benefits etc.

According to the Department of Health & Human Services, E-cigarettes are permitted to be sold in Tasmania...”Yes. E-cigarettes and their cartridges can be sold in Tasmania provided the cartridges do not contain nicotine.” And it’s likely that vendors will want to demonstrate scented samples, just like other market sellers?

Other obviously scented product ranges are candles, oils, and incense. Is it the quality of the product that some people are unable to tolerate, the atomic particles, or the aromas they emit? Is it the simple fact that you can see the smoke, a reminder of the invisible emissions of sneezes and colds that flow from mouths all around us or the sense of dangerous burning?

By Visitor7 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

When I was growing up, I used to buy cheap-arse incense and burn it in my bedroom, for that totally hip bohemian look (that seems again to be all the rage for 14-year olds in 2017). My mother used to curse the stuff, adamant that it gave her headaches. These days, I can see what she means. I now prefer a good quality incense. If you’re going to purchase cheap incense to burn, you may as well burn the packet it came in.

Incense and smudgesticks seem to be a common concern. Incense is made from organic powders infused with fragrance and emits an aromatic smoke trail when burned. Smudgesticks are those wrapped-up dried things that are burnt in a home to remove smells and the shadows on unwanted spiritual vibrations. They’re usually made of sage and other herbs and wafted around on movies by clairvoyants and American-Indians. People have been doing it in personal and social spaces for thousands of years. I know plenty of people who covet the smell of those gorgeous textiles that come with that classic nagchampa smell.

Like everyone else, some aromas attract me – boobialla burning on the campfire in Spring and the smell of homemade croissants. Like everyone else, I’m also less tolerant to some smells. Despite my penchant for passively enjoying a quality cherry nougat tobacco smoked in a pipe, tobacco burning at a hundred paces through three lead walls haunts me and I feel like vomiting. I don’t think anyone educated can claim that tobacco is okay in any retail or food space.

Is it about quality? Is it a chemical thing in our brain?

Commonly found in most households are fly sprays, power socket chemical dispensers, room deoderisers, and roll-on insect repellents.  In the 1950s, we were encouraged by sleek advertising promotions to spray the equivalent to 1020 all over the kids and kitchen for our “health”. Doctors’ recommendations were accompanied by images of sleeping babies and flawless mothers and toxins are always “pleasantly fragrant”. Mmm Fly-tox, Skat, Trimz DDT.  In original fragrance? These days, we can purchase sensitive varieties or “low-allergy” versions….

Personally, I prefer none of the these industrial killers. Give me citronella candles, oils, and incense any time. Especially one I’ve bought at the market! Mankind has been softly ‘smoking’ bees to keep them calm whilst extracting the delicious nectar they happily keep providing! Flies and ants don’t eat much anyway.

Regardless of the safety of any product, there seems to be a discussion in the land of markets, bazaars, and fairs as to what to make of selling aromatic items at your local market…

I had a really quick search around the internet and easily found articles espousing both benefits and concerns of many synthetic and natural goods. The writer of this blog cannot use essential oils due to the scent. Many of the replies in her blog thread strongly disagree and others repeat the claims. The writer admits her hyper-sensitivity stating that she got a headache from cooking pasta sauce in her house all day. I get that with aerosol cans….trust me, I’ve been stuck in a 1960s Morris Mini Travellers Van with five crates of paint spray cans and solvents on a long hot drive around Tasmania. I only did it once. I don’t recommend it. You start to hear funny voices.

But this isn’t about paint. It isn’t even about oils. I used to have a neighbour who could not be around lavender (the plant) at all, as it gave her headaches. I’ve known other people with the same result, whilst the majority of the world’s reporting population claim that lavender (fresh or oil) commonly relieves headaches and migraines.

Some time ago, I had a lovely lady hug me at the market. The intensity of the perfume she left, seemingly all over me, was enough for me to have to go wash my skin and change my shirt. I couldn’t stomach it, it burned my nose, and it sent my head into a spin.

I also know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of inescapable blasts of bad breath. Hopefully we are not at the mercy of having to stay stationery behind our stall,  unlike a wandering customer. Let’s not forget our neighbouring stalls and any market staff.

What constitutes ‘offensive’?

When I walk into a market, I like to experience the sounds, sights, and smells. Which smells? One of the first joys of the market day is when I smell the sweet scents of natural soy candles. We have a few conscientious makers at our market who use quality scents and the products are created to provide ambient light, attractive homewares and gifts, as well as being great as a topical massage for the skin, but mostly as an aroma. I can smell them even unpacked, well before they’re lighted. I know vendors often light their products to give customers an example of the quality of scent they offer. What about certain scents, or strong scents? Do candlemakers encounter issues? Are they too much? Might they cause some people headaches as they pass by?

Cooking smells, spices, and onion products, sauces, nuts, and cooking smells that might be strong, the first smoking of the hot plate for the day, meat smells for a vegan or vegetarian. And don’t forget the 10% of the population who cannot tolerate the smell or taste of coriander!

In writing this, Mister, who also happens to be a cilantro adversary, comes inside the house smelling like an oil can……

And then there are other airborne villians that can create an allergic reaction from ten paces, – pollens and plants, feathers from live birds or in other products, some timber dust, cleaning products, glues, finishing mediums, and other natural materials that might be present in market goods. If in doubt, just don’t stop to eat the cheese, nuts, breads, or touch the unknown plants or wrap up in knitted fibres.

Like I said, what’s a market organiser to do?

I’m not sure how other markets are, but I cherish the stallholders we have. They are individuals with feelings, aspirations, faith in me as their market manager, and for those I’ve had the chance to get to know – they are my friends. That’s just happened along the way, by accident or simply due to our common aims and ideas.

On the 26th of September 2016 we lost our longest serving stallholder. 
Chris Bennett was an amazing man, loved by everyone who met him. Two months on from his passing, our marketeers are still mourning him and wondering if he walks the aisles still. His works remain on display, and since he was rarely at his stall (!) we feel that he might just be found around the next corner. It still doesn’t feel real. Only a few days before, we had shared a cuppa in the sun on a Wednesday whilst looking at old photography books.
Many of the market folk attended his service where they could. It was not surprising that he had a good turnout. It was suitably raining – the downpour and outpour fell hard outside, stopped at poignant moments, and flooded the hall with intensity in betwixt the laughing and descriptions of such an eccentric and animated man. His funeral service was a testament to the consistency of stories about him – all of a man who was terrible at driving, passionate about everyone’s ability to shine, stubbornly particular about many things, and a fantastic photographer, teacher, family member, friend, and example of humanity.
He fiercely loved his music and spoke with his eyes closed as though he visualised every sentence in images and colour. He was odd, he was eccentric, he was awesome.

Chris’ talent for photography was evident in his ability to capture the colour and taste of Tasmanian scenery.

His natural ability extended across all areas and he is remembered by many for his unbridled love for music which he exposed to the world when he opened up ‘Tassie’s little alternative music shop” Foggy Mountain Music in Launceston, Tasmania.

Foggy Mountain Music Chris Bennett, article from Leatherwood Online, photo by Alan Moyle

Those who visited the shop will recall his dynamic sales pitch which really was all about each visitor’s taste or potential taste in music. He proudly showcased jazz and country, alternative and vintage music but his real love was for the blues.

And…he crammed his shop full of interesting paraphernalia.

That was then. Eventually he took up photography and was a natural. He had the intangible creative force that enabled him to capture energy and light in his images. Everything about him was refreshing.

Chris Bennett Photography

And then one day in 2014, Chris came to Avalon.

His enthusiasm was infectious and delightful. He quickly became known for his love of a new paraphernalia and in setting up his stall each weekend.  His framed works, prints, easels, boxes, chests, suitcases and props began to creep outwards, upwards, and into other stall spaces, cramming the space full like a music store of album covers and posters. He was constantly tinkering.

During the week, we would encounter him here, constructing makeshift walls and bringing in yet another wardrobe to customise as a storage unit interchangeable gallery wall.

I had made the pleasurable mistake of informally naming a corner of the building as his : “Chris Bennett’s gallery” …and Chris ran with it! He knew that stalls here were set up on Sunday for just Sunday but somehow, lovable Chris always found a way around this. He’d be knocking on our door any day of the week – sometimes every day of the week – full of excitement and new plans for his display.
In fact, he was always encroaching on other people’s spaces.  He became, I guess, an institution.  His photographs and assorted butter churners or matting would sneak around a corner like The Blob clasping at the next space, consuming the walls and bubbling forth across the ground (Chris was known for his misplacing items and trip hazards!). Apparently, he called us the “Space Police”. I kinda like the name!  It reminds me of silver spandex, Barbarella and taser guns. I was often having to collect his boxes, bubble-wrap, tools, and more from all over the marketplace.

Well after the start of the market day, we’d find his vehicle – doors wide open, keys in the ignition – in the middle of the walkway. His photography works would appear elsewhere in the marketplace, either purposefully positioned on an easel or simply forgotten about and leaning against the front of another stallholder’s chair. As a member of the “Space Police”, I often taped out his allotted space with a firm waggle of the finger ‘Now, Chris, don’t you cross that!!’

There was one time when I quickly discovered that during the market he had created a narrow ‘funnel’ whereby visitors to the market could not pass his work without noticing. He’d placed his displays and folding walls directly in front of another stall.

‘Remember my mention of the movie ‘The Blob’? That’s when the tape went down on the floor.   ‘Do not cross this line!’

Despite the occasional frustrating moments, they were happy times. It was as though he was a precocious teenager – full of mischief, humour, excitement, and life.  The stories told at his service validated the notion. All the things that made him such a wild and eccentric man are the things we miss most. We wish he was here to scold and laugh with.

If you might indulge me further my personal recollections of Chris….One of my favourite memories of him is the morning he arrived at market with his jumper on inside out and backwards. I pointed it out to him and he went to rectify it. I quickly told it looked pretty snappy with the label on the front and was very nouveau. Without a thought, he left it like that and came to market most days with his jumper at least inside out. He let me take this photo to add to my portfolio of mad market photos.  It really is my favourite.

He always endeavoured to wear bright colour somewhere on his person, patches on his clothes, and those darling little beanies. If it wasn’t a cap, it was some multi-coloured skull cap. Nobody else can wear them like him. He praised new stallholders for their ingenuity, their craft, and spilled forth to visitors on the talents of those around him… ‘World class, WORLD Class!!’… ‘Looking good as always, Jen’… ‘he’s a master of his craft’…. ‘excellent!! brilliant!!’

I still hear his voice in my head and his excitement at every detail of the world; child-like wonder; a rare find.

Chris will never be forgotten. We miss him dearly.