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  • From: Jackie Jameson <jacqueline.jameson AT gmail.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Pricing
  • Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 15:36:03 -0400

Price fixing is illegal, as is other forms of collusion that restrain trade.  This is anti-competitive, and anti-trust law is written in the Sherman Act, RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) and other law.
I'm not a lawyer, and have only had a few law classes, but I thought I would contribute that.
Jackie in NY

On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 3:28 PM, Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net> wrote:

On May 4, 2012, at 3:02 PM, Richard Moyer wrote:


We have a volunteer at our market that records prices on a variety of produce at market, then sends it into our Virginia Dept of Ag and Consumer Services.  They organize all the material and post it weekly; we can then see the statewide range of prices on many items we sell.

Thanks very much! I've bookmarked it and added it to my list of price sources.

When unit isn't specified, is the price per pound? In a few cases they said pint or bunch, but a lot of prices didn't say per what amount. -- I wonder if wildly different head sizes could explain the huge range on cabbage on one week that I checked at random, if the price is per head; or if one price could be per head and another per pound and that would explain it.

New Farm used to do such a list at markets in a number of different areas and post it online, but I think they ran out of volunteers to manage it, and dropped it some years ago.


On May 4, 2012, at 3:02 PM, Richard Moyer wrote:

 I've on occasion let a fellow vendor know that we charge more, still sell all we bring, and leave it at that.  Would that be considered illegal in certain jurisdictions?


I think it must be legal to simply tell other people what you are doing. If they wanted, after all, they could walk over to your stall and look at your prices. They could even come back near the end of market and see how much you had left.

I don't think the illegal part is providing information. I think what's illegal is getting together and agreeing "OK, everybody is going to charge at least X." I often check other vendors' prices and sometimes even call and ask them before market (we have very cooperative markets, at some markets from what I've heard nobody would tell you); but it's only one of several things I take into consideration when setting prices and I may wind up with a price either below or above what they tell me/what I see theirs priced at (usually above, since mine's certified organic; but occasionally below, if theirs are bigger bunches or nicer looking or if I think they have the particular item way overpriced based on other criteria.)


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 6A now I think
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale




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