Lahti flea market adds mandatory return fee to all items

Lahtelainen self-service flea market Lanttila has added a mandatory 30-cent return fee to every item, Yle reports. Customers can now return purchases within two days.

Flea markets have traditionally not offered a right to return goods. Lanttila owner Joonas Saarikivi said customers previously demanded returns even when they were not entitled to them, leading to disputes.

“Emotions run high when customers come to the counter. They know they have no right to return the item, but still want to do so. Now we no longer have to have these discussions,” Saarikivi said.

Lanttila does not require customers to give a specific reason for returning an item. The intention is that customers return only faulty products or goods that do not match their descriptions.

Before the change, Lanttila received returns monthly. It now receives them on some days every day. The average value of a returned item is about five euros.

Because the flea market operates on a self-service basis, a seller’s sales period may have ended by the time a customer returns an item. In such cases, the flea market has had to refund the customer from its own funds.

The 30-cent fee is added to the price set by the seller and does not reduce the seller’s payment. Customers who return an item receive the full purchase price back.

Some customers consider the new fee unnecessary and contrary to the idea of a flea market. Karita Johansson said the arrangement sounded “crazy” because the shop was a flea market.

She also considered 30 cents a significant amount when the item itself cost 50 cents. However, she believed the fee could become common practice at flea markets.

Reetta Munter-Jäntti said the fee raises prices and could discourage sellers from bringing low-priced items for sale. She said it would affect her purchasing decisions for inexpensive products, but not necessarily for more expensive ones.

She could see herself using the return option if, for example, an electronic device did not work.

Other flea markets have introduced different return policies. In some shops belonging to the Bella flea market chain, customers receive a gift card when they return an item.

Products bought at the Puutori and Länsiykkönen flea markets in Turku can be returned within one day. Unlike at Lanttila, the sale of a returned item is cancelled, meaning the seller is not paid for it.

Jesse Halme, an entrepreneur at the Turku flea markets, said the item remains the seller’s property and can be put up for sale again. Paying the seller for a returned item would leave the flea market bearing the entire financial risk of the return system, he said.

Saarikivi said customers were beginning to get used to Lanttila’s new system and that feedback had become more positive.