You can bite my pearls!

While selling at the Caribbean Markets today, I had a really nice customer who was looking at the gartered freshwater pearls bracelets. She politely asked me if they were really freshwater pearls, and I thought that it might be interesting to tell people how to not get ripped off when buying pearls. 

I explained to her that by biting them, you can actually tell real pearls from fake ones, and I was really happy and amused that she took my word for it and gave them a bite (good on you, ma'am!). Real pearls, when bitten (or grinding them between your teeth), feel grainy, whereas fake pearls would be totally smooth. And of course real pearls won't scratch when you bite them. 

After biting them, she was more than happy to buy all 3 of them from me, and I was just as happy to sell them to her at a very reasonable price. It feels good because it feels like I've won a customer's trust...and we all know that that is key in keeping your customers!