Farmer's Market Member Dues Survey

[Worth1]

Here is all of the information I asked for and more.
This was an email sent to me later today after I inquired about selling stuff at the farmers market in Bastrop texas.

I hope this helps.

Worth


We are a producers’ only market which means that all products brought to market are grown, made, baked, or prepared personally by the vendor--no reselling is allowed.



Due to changes in Texas food laws, we can now accept vendors producing food items under the cottage laws, as space allows.

The vendors of The Bastrop 1832 Farmers Market are an enthusiastic and friendly group of farmers, ranchers and artisans. Our market features locally grown food: vegetables, fruits, yard eggs, meats, prepared foods & handcrafted artisan goods. Please come visit us soon!

Some specific answers to your questions:

There is a yearly membership fee of $50 with a sliding scale depending on when membership is started: March thru May: $50, June thru August: $40, September thru November $30, December thru February: $20. Membership for Specialty Venders of short duration, for example, watermelons or lemons is $15.



A prospective vendor is allowed to set up at market 3 times before paying the membership fee. Daily booth fees do apply and are paid daily.



Daily Booth fee: Fee is based on several factors: inside the barn reserved space on Saturdays is $15 for sales up to $300. Above $300 the fee total is $20. Tuesday booth fees and outside on the porch fees are on a sliding scale: Sales from $0-$50 is $5, Sales from $51 to $100 is $10, Sales from $101-$300 is $15, Sales above $301 is $20. Vendor Sales Figures and Booth fees are collected at the end of market.



There is a Freezer fee due from vendors keeping freezers at market—due first of month along with booth fee for the day. Average amount is $15 a month

Vendors are allowed to set their own prices within a range of the average price--what kinds of items did you have in mind? With the vegetables & fruits, eggs, the main prohibition is deliberate underpricing. Higher pricing is OK as long as your product is priced higher for a reason such as using organic chicken feed which is much more expensive than regular chicken feed, as long as the customer understands why it is more expensive. Most of our farmers’ prices are around the same prices as found in HEB. Artisan type of goods such as jewelry, pottery, and other such items vary a bit depending on materials used, etc.

The booth space is about 10 feet x 10 feet. Vendors need to supply their own tables, displays, signs, supplies, etc. Electricity is available for equipment needed.

We would welcome help with the garden!


Info from our rules and regulations;
A. Who May Sell:
1. Farmers. Farmers who have been inspected and certified by representatives of the market may sell at the market. Farmers may be represented at the market by their employees, agents or family (the names of all sellers must be on the application). Market members must:

·Grow your own local product that you sell.
·No reselling of any type at the market.
·Allow an inspection of your farm or facilities.
·Provide a copy of all required licenses, permits, licenses and insurance policies necessary for your operation, to the Market prior to selling.
·If you grow organic, you must be T.D.A. certified to be able to advertise that your produce is organic grown and present certification.
·Determine your own prices of your products and prices must be posted.
·Members should keep a fair price on their product.
·All sellers will provide their own means of display, necessary bags, approved calibrated scales (if using scales), and keep their stall free of trash.
·All produce must be fresh, neat and attractively displayed.
·Keep aisles in front of your tables free and clear for customer’s right of entry.·
All vendors must respect the prevailing pricing levels set at the market (NO LOWBALLING).

[surf4grrl]

It depends - LI farmers markets can go between $300-$400 for either summer or winter season. NYC/5 boroughs is way higher. That's a 10x10 space.

[Cole_Robbie]

The last item on the list above regarding prices is illegal, although realistically it is still an unspoken rule at most markets.

[Wi-sunflower]

Yes, you can't legally "fix prices".

At the market I go to tho, if you don't stay in a "ballpark" price range often people think something is "wrong" with the stuff.

One week when I was fairly new (only a couple of years) I had a whole LOT of nice lettuce come on all at once. Bostons and other leaf types. Because I had so much I wanted to move, I went below the prevailing price (at that time) of 60 - 75 cents / and priced mine at 3/$1. I barely sold any for the first 3 hours. Then someone clued me in and I changed the price to 2/$1 and it started selling rather well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

As far as the booth fees go, we can see that they are all over the place and don't always relate to how well established or popular the market is.

Something I MUST add --

There are now SO MANY markets that many of the older established markets here aren't doing nearly as well as they used to. When I started at the Capitol market in 88, there was only 1 other market in the Madison area. Now there are 20 or more. So if a person doesn't want to go downtown, they don't have to any more. BUT, I used to sell over $1,000 / Sat many times each year. Often every Sat in Sept and Oct. This year we never got close and many weeks weren't even 1/2 of that. The customers are too split up now.

In Wisconsin just about every little town wants to have a market. You could do 20 on a Saturday if you had the people and equipment to run them. And there are lots of little weekday "going home " time markets (4-7PM). But most of them only draw a handful of farmers and many of them are really only back yard growers with some excess. There aren't enough REAL farmers to go around and some markets also have plenty of vendors that don't even grow what they sell. (1 of my big pet peeves )

I do a decent Wed market in Madison. There is also a Wed "going home" market in Horicon, a town I drive thru on my way. One day Mom and I stopped on the way home to see if it would be worth it to "double up" as the timing would work out. We just stopped and walked around to look. It was bigger than most with about 20 vendors. BUT all of them looked like they were just backyard growers except for 1 guy that had a pick-up load of sweet corn. We actually had more left over in our truck than just about that whole market had and we had had a decent selling day already. I knew they wouldn't WANT us there so we never even asked.

Ray used to try a couple of the little weekday markets near us, but when you sit 5+ hours and only sell $20 or so, you don't go back. Lately he has done better selling cabbage to a couple local restaurants and a local Piggly Wiggly grocery.

Just some observations from a 30 year market vendor,
Carol

[biscgolf]

The rules against underpricing are useful whether legal or not. In our area there is one very large (400 acres of produce) grower whose business practice is to move into new markets and undersell everyone in order to drive out the competition. I call them the Walmart of local produce. While rules against drastically underselling do not prevent this entirely they do curb it to a degree so smaller growers can continue to profit.

[Wi-sunflower]

We have 1 HUGE grower here (several thousand acres) that doesn't bother cutting others out. He sells to the people too lazy to grow themselves and lets them take the risk of the farmers markets.

That's why I quit a well known market in the Milwaukee area after selling there for more than 20 years. While they have a "home grown" only rule they rarely inspected, let alone enforced the rule. On any given Saturday I would say close to if not more than 1/2 the produce there was either from "downtown" (produce dealers) or that big farm. Many of us knew it but if we complained against any of the worst offenders chances were the management would instead find something WE were not doing exactly right and kick US out.

It wasn't fair to us or the customers. Especially since 1 of the vendors CLAIMED he was organic but he was seem buying from the big grower who was also big chem.

Carol

[coronabarb]

Interesting perspectives. I am involved in a local farmers' market. They now have both an outdoor summer market (I think the membership is around $30-$35) from April through Oct. and an indoor winter market ($25 fee) from Nov through March). Booth space was just changed from a sliding fee with a minimum $10 up to a cap of $35 to a flat fee of $20 (which most smaller vendors opposed because it hurt them more than the big vendors).

We have a Farm Direct law here in Oregon so as long as I grow it, I can sell it w/o any inspections required. I am also able to sell certain preserved foods like jam, jelly, sauce, pickles etc. Again no license needed and no certified or inspected kitchen. At some point, I hope to have the kitchen certified so I can sell baked goods. We don't have an unspoken rule on prices. To each their own as far as that goes. I sell my jams for $5/half pint. Wish I could charge more but this market won't bear it. Others have tried to sell for $7 or even $5.50 w/o much luck. I'm doing well at that prices.

Once I get into meat rabbits again, I might avail the local USDA inspected processing facility and sell rabbit meat too.

[biscgolf]

i thought rabbits fell under the same rules as chicken with usda. (you can process without a usda facility up to a certain number per year)

in Virginia you so not need an inspected kitchen to sell "temperature stable" baked goods at farmer's markets either.

[Cole_Robbie]

About 20 years ago, the health department came to the market and told my grandma that she was going to kill people with her jelly, because it was not made in an inspected kitchen. She was rather offended. So my grandparents build a separate kitchen on the car port that passed the initial state inspection. Then the state never came back again to do another inspection. She still makes the jelly in her kitchen, instead of walking out to the car port to do it. Amazingly enough, no one has died. It must be a miracle.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

About 20 years ago, the health department came to the market and told my grandma that she was going to kill people with her jelly, because it was not made in an inspected kitchen. She was rather offended. So my grandparents build a separate kitchen on the car port that passed the initial state inspection. Then the state never came back again to do another inspection. She still makes the jelly in her kitchen, instead of walking out to the car port to do it. Amazingly enough, no one has died. It must be a miracle.

[bigmeanmamma]

The Southside Farmers market charges $75 per season for 1 day or $100 per season for 2 days. Its on Wed and Fri 4pm-7pm. This market requires you to carry insurance too.

The Greenwood Farmers market charges $75 for the season and its on Saturdays 8-noon. This includes paying an extra $25 to get a reserved spot. Its worth paying extra for that to me.

There are no joining fees or anything. These rates are consistent with other markets in our area. Looks like ours are pretty cheap compared to some of the prices people are paying.

[Palmandan]

I have been involved with different farmers' markets over the years. Most recently one opened that has a $35 membership fee, $10 minimum each day or 6% of proceeds. Saturday 9am - 1 pm.

The other market I attend is $25 membership and 5% of proceeds.

[heirloomtomaguy]

The local farmers markets in the San Gabriel Valley of Southern California charge 10% of all gross sales. One company in paticular runs most of the farmers markets within 10 miles of me. They kinda have a monopoly around here so if you want to sell they are the only game in town.

[Cole_Robbie]

I didn't know there were markets that charged a percentage of sales. I have no idea how they keep people from cheating.

We have a new upstart market in town, and they just charge a flat fee, but other vendors who have been there said the market manager wants to move to a percentage fee. A lot of vendors are very offended by that concept. It punishes success. Vendors who do a lot of business draw customers to the market, and that helps everyone.

[Palmandan]

We have one vendor who does a huge amount of business and she always pays a chunk of percentage money at every market. I think they should put a cap - pay no more than ... $ ? each time, just as many markets have a minimum you have to pay even if you sell nothing.