The number that is easy to count

The people who run a weekend craft market in Sheikh Zayed like to announce how many visitors came through the gate. It is always a round number, it goes on a poster for the next one, and it gets set beside the figures other markets announce.

It is easy to see the appeal. The figure is simple to collect, it mostly goes up, and anyone can compare it at a glance. A number like that feels like a score.

But being easy to count is not the same as mattering. The gate figure does not say how many visitors bought anything, how many stallholders covered their costs, or how many people came back the following month. It cannot tell a family that spent the afternoon from a man who cut through the car park. It has the shape of a useful measurement and very little of the substance.

The obvious advice is to tell the organisers to stop quoting it. That rarely works. People who like measuring will measure something, and taking away a favourite number only leaves a gap that soon fills with another just like it.

The better move is to put a more useful number in front of them. How many stallholders booked again for next season. How many visitors left carrying a bag. How many came because a friend told them to. These are harder to collect and they never come out round, which is partly why they are worth having.

People who care about numbers are an asset to any market. The work is not to cure them of measuring. It is to give them something worth measuring instead.