Starting a farmers' market - tips, please!

[ScottinAtlanta]

My church is thinking of starting a monthly farmers' market here in Atlanta operated out of our parking lot.

I am somewhat in charge - can anyone help me with tips, ideas, experience? If you pm me your phone, I can call you to chat if that would be easier.

There are so many questions: what are the typical space fees charged? How large is a space? What other services are needed, such as water or electricity? What are the limitations on what folks can sell? What problems are we likely to run into? How can we increase the profit from the market? How do we contact farmers who might be interested in participating?

Many thanks to everyone for your help.

[joseph]

Around here spaces at farmer's markets are 10 feet wide and deep, and some of the larger farmers might rent two spaces. Nearby bathrooms are customary. Water and electricity are not provided. If food vendors are invited they provide their own utility services. If farmers use tents they provide their own.

Government is likely to be the source of your biggest and most vexing problems. Might be a good idea to get hold of the appropriate bureaucrats and pay the required gratuities ahead of time, or have an evasion strategy in place: [Fundraiser for the food pantry?]. Admission to the market requires a donation of canned goods...

A farmer's market is unlikely to make money for your church. Farmers around here pay $4 to $7 to attend the farmer's market, and we grumble about that being akin to extortion. I can't imagine a farmer that would want to attend a once a month market... Vegetables need to be picked 2 to 3 times per week to be in best form. A once a month market is merely a nuisance to a farmer.

To contact farmers go to your local farmers markets and give each farmer a flyer. Ask for feedback or to add them to your mailing list. http://localharvest.org is the easiest source I know of for finding local farmers.

p.s. edited to correct allocated space. Thanks @worth1

[ginger2778]

Scott, I think your church can charge more, because Atlanta is a large cosmopolitan city, like Plantation, where people are used to higher fees. Here's a link to one that we have year around, put on by the city, and it always has at least 12 vendors. There is a link to the vendor application, which is 3 pages with rules and prices. http://www.plantation.org/City-Gover...rs-market.html

Marsha

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Scott, I think your church can charge more, because Atlanta is a large cosmopolitan city, like Plantation, where people are used to higher fees. Here's a link to one that we have year around, put on by the city, and it always has at least 12 vendors. There is a link to the vendor application, which is 3 pages with rules and prices. http://www.plantation.org/City-Gover...rs-market.html

Marsha

Hello Ginger

It there a pricing list for Historical Vegetables and fruits that farmer cans go by when pricing fresh produce?

[Father'sDaughter]

If they haven't already done so, have the church leaders check with their insurance company to discuss any possible liability they may be taking on by running the market, and how to minimize any exposure.

[Wi-sunflower]

I totally agree with most of what Joseph said.

I do have 1 once / month market I do but only because it's a long standing market from back in the 50s. A new 1 would probably not draw many farmers.

In my area EVERYONE wants to have a Saturday market and frankly THAT has hurt ALL the markets. Too many markets, not enough quality farmers for all of them. But it splits the customer base tooo much for any of them to really be worthwhile for the farmers.

Pick a day other than Sat. if there already are plenty in your area. also pick a day other than Friday. The farmers will be busy picking for their Sat market and can't be bothered.

Around me, many markets size by "parking spaces", 1,2,or 3. Most small farmers can fit in 1 or 2 depending on if it's lengthwise or sideways (across the space like small town parking rather than parallel). For farmers with a bigger truck like I have tho we need 3 spaces sideways or we have to move the truck, a real PITA. Basically 10 or 20 feet of frontage is usually OK. But around here it will go for $10 / space if not more. OK at a good market, not if there is not much attendance or it's a mixed with rummage market.

More later,
Carol

[Pappi]

I would agree with having a different day then Saturday. Around here the main market is held on Saturday. Add in a time that's later in the day than most vendors and especially customers prefer and it just leads to a weak market. I probably hear at least half of the market asking for a Tuesday or Thursday evening instead.

For time of day almost all vendors and customers want it earlier if it must be on Saturday. A few factors contribute to that. By the time the market opens it is getting very hot out. No one wants their produce baking at 90-105 in direct sun, that goes for vendors and customers alike. Last season was especially bad. Some days you would show up and there is literally one vendor. Most prefering the Friday evening market just down the road because they give you as much space as is needed and have food vendors and entertainment as well. As is pointed out above, none of us are going to stay up picking late or get up way way before dawn on a Saturday to pick more produce for a market where the produce gets fried.

Another is we are in natures playground. In the summer the same people who want it to be held the most during the week won't come on the weekend unless it's early. The reason is they want to go fishing, hiking, hunting, cycling, rock climbing, etc. Most people around here get up very early on Saturday because they want to do things before the heat sets in. So even those with only shopping to do are still up before dawn.

At least these are just a few observations from just one market around here. Your market may be different. I would suggest doing a bit of market research to find out what the community wants. If your potential customer base wants a Monday evening market then that's the ticket. Hope some of this helps.

Pappi

[LDx4]

Scott,

A good source of information might be the Georgia Farm Bureau: http://www.gfb.org/commodities/cfm/default.html

Certified farmers markets have many rules and regulations and some might be of use to your situation. I know that in San Diego County, most all farmers markets (at least the bigger, well publicized ones) are certified by the county and are subject to the county's rules. At the market that I sell at, each stall is 10' x 10' but farmers can have as many stalls as they want at no extra charge, as long as they have pop-up sun shades over all their stalls. Also, the fee for selling is a percentage (right now, it's 8% at my market) of the gross sales per day, so if I have a slow day of sales, my fee is lower, which is nice. The market I sold at last season charged a flat fee of $25, which was too much for me.

At most of the markets around here there is a mix of farmers selling produce, cut flowers and plants (I sell both vegetable seedlings and produce), artisans selling hand crafted items, jams, candy, etc., and a food area with vendors selling hot foods, ice cream, etc.

If you have a large congregation at your church, you might get better traffic on days when the services are held.

Lyn

[Worth1]

Joseph did you mean 10 feet X 10 feet which would be 100 square feet.
10 square feet would be a space about 3.15 X 3.15 feet.

The place here in town gave you a spot big enough to put a pickup in.
Since they moved inside I have no idea what they have.

Worth

[Salsacharley]

If you are going to sponsor a market you probably should check out getting set up to receive SNAP (food stamps or EBT) unless you require your vendors to individually qualify for accepting them. The state may also offer food subsides that open the market to more customers.

[joseph]

I highly recommend a "growers only" market, meaning that all food has to be grown by the farmers that bring it to market. If you don't do that you will have people going to the local auction house and buying the same vegetables that are offered by the grocery stores and reselling them.

There are two type of farmers at my market. One type thinks that their produce is so valuable and so precious that they need to charge 3 times grocery store prices for it. The other type is focused on feeding the poor in the community and offer prices that are less than what the grocery stores are asking. If market management gets in the middle of pricing issues it will be a constant irritation to management. I recommend that management has no involvement whatsoever in pricing.

Tuesday or Wednesday are convenient for farmers to attend a secondary market because it is a half a week since the Saturday market and there will be vegetables that need to be picked then.

Our market accepts SNAP and hands out tokens that the welfare recipients can give to the farmers to buy approved items. The market also accepts debit/credit cards and gives out a different type of token that can be used for anything at the market. The farmers trade the tokens in at the end of the market.

[ChrisInNC]

Hey Scott,

I am by no means an expert, but we grow strawberries and other things and are vendors at a handful of weekly markets in the Raleigh area. I am also on the board for a smaller local market outside of Raleigh.

I'd say successful markets depend on several variables. You need to have the right demographic in your area...in my experience those are young growing families, the health conscious, active people and those interested in supporting local farms. In this area the closer to Raleigh you get the better, out in the more rural areas the population is very familiar with farming and gardening and not so impressed with these weekly or monthly markets as it's stuff they have grown up with all their life, I think the novelty of it is lost.

As for what the market itself can do or what is expected... The most successful markets around here are very helpful towards the vendors. Every market has 10x10 spaces for the vendor, requiring pop up tents for each vendor and most offer electricity (for an extra charge). The best markets go so far as to provide their own tents for the vendors, this isn't necessary but from the vendors POV it sure is nice! The vendor fees in my experience range anywhere from $5 a spot up to about $20. I'd say $10-$15 is most common. Places also offer discounts if you pay for an entire season up front.

Each individual market is different, some require you must grow or produce EVERYTHING you bring to market, others are more flexible. I personally think there is a happy medium, if you are strict enough to make it ONLY what you grow, well you are going to have some very bare months during parts of the year where it's too cold or the weather hasn't cooperated. By the same token, you don't want to open it up to any and everything under the sun IMO or you will have people out there with bananas, limes and mangoes grown out of country which goes against the uniqueness and local flavor expected by small markets.

It's good to have a good mix of vendors, you don't want 10 strawberry vendors or no one goes home happy as no one will sell out. It would be a good idea to have some kind of rules about pricing, inevitably when you have more than one vendor selling the same product they are going to try to lower prices to get more customers and then it gets to the point where no one is making money and can have hard feelings towards other vendors. For the well being of the market it's my belief you should try to encourage prices which are very comparable between vendors...let the product/customer service drive sales rather than price wars.

It's always good to have some form of entertainment along with the market to draw crowds. Some have live music or activities for kids such as a bouncy house or something like that. I've seen some places have a cook or chef come out and make some sort of dish right there on site with some of the ingredients being sold at the market to help encourage people to buy and draw people in to see what's cooking.

I guess it all depends on what your goal of the market is as to when you should be open. I find it very difficult to justify going to local markets between November and March. The items you have to sell as a farmer are very limited, greens, beets, turnips and potatoes don't pay the bills. April-July are the best times for me personally as customers are excited about the spring and produce and are motivated to buy. Plus you have strawberries, blueberries and other items available in my area at least. As you get into the heat of summer things typical die down a bit but it can still be worth it.

Anyhow, I don't know if anything I said is worth a hill of beans, but those are just some of my observations mainly as a vendor. If you have any specific questions about how any of the markets I attend do things feel free to message me. Good Luck!!!

[Cole_Robbie]

Along the lines of making it producer-only, you want to head off what I call the "flea market effect." If you don't have a clear policy about arts and crafts, and Chinese-made trinkets, then vendors like that will fill your spaces and you'll have a flea market instead of a farmer's market. The market I go to will get 5-10 craft vendor applications for every farmer application.

The best way to have control over the vendors is to choose carefully who you let in. Most smaller markets will only let in one vendor per specialized product like farm eggs. That keeps the vendors you do have happy.

Regarding pricing, a farmer's market may not fix prices, period. You can suggest a minimum price, but you can't make a vendor have a particular price, at least in the eyes of the law.

[PNW_D]

Enjoy our Farmers Markets here in Vancouver .........

this may be of some help

http://www.bcfarmersmarket.org/marke...farmers-market

[ChrisInNC]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

Along the lines of making it producer-only, you want to head off what I call the "flea market effect." If you don't have a clear policy about arts and crafts, and Chinese-made trinkets, then vendors like that will fill your spaces and you'll have a flea market instead of a farmer's market. The market I go to will get 5-10 craft vendor applications for every farmer application.

The best way to have control over the vendors is to choose carefully who you let in. Most smaller markets will only let in one vendor per specialized product like farm eggs. That keeps the vendors you do have happy.

Regarding pricing, a farmer's market may not fix prices, period. You can suggest a minimum price, but you can't make a vendor have a particular price, at least in the eyes of the law.

I agree with that. In my post I wasn't trying to suggest fixing a price for a product, I was trying to advocate for the market to address undercutting prices. It makes for unhappy vendors when competitors slash prices just to undercut you so they can sell. The exact prices clearly are the vendors decision and the market shouldn't control it, that would be a recipe for disaster. However the practice of price wars should be controlled and addressed somehow.