Welcome to another instalment of our series “Keep The Brits”! This is a series of short messages about traits and quirks of British people and the importance and impact of British culture.
So, here we are! After 16 months (and counting!) in the COVID era, we must not overlook the positives aspects of lockdown. Sounds weird saying that, right? But being locked indoors has made us look around our homes and say: do I really need that coffee table or will I ever read that book again? A good number of us have even decided to change the look of our homes and have been busy redecorating and refurbishing.
And with COVID restrictions easing and the good weather coming, a British cultural institution has made its appearance again: the car boot sale.
Car boot sales are informal gatherings, usually in farm fields, where Brits show up, open the boots of their cars and sell whatever stuff they have been storing in their homes for years. They usually occur on Sundays in the spring and in the summer, sprawling around the country side and town markets all across the UK. Each of them attracts hundreds of improvised sellers and thousands of buyers. And because most of the sellers are more driven by getting rid of their stuff rather than maximizing profits…car boot sales are definitely a buyer’s dream! And that’s why armies of eager buyers flock to car boot sales, but that makes prices go up, right? So without realizing it, in a way, car boot sales are as close to efficient markets as you can get. All spontaneous and unregulated! Adam Smith’s true invisible hand at work!
I have been at many car boot sales as a seller. They are really quintessential British and a lot of fun…and they are the epithomy of the old saying that a man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure!
Thanks for listening. We’ll be back soon.
In the meantime, keep the brits in your heart and mind.