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market-farming - Re: peddlers, politics & convenience

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  • From: "Gary & Sarah Rowland" <hcf AT moment.net>
  • To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: peddlers, politics & convenience
  • Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 08:59:08 -0600


Convenience is a great word but very its very scarce in modern day life.
Having a market location in a desirable [high traffic] location is supposed
to be "conveniant" but is a hassel to get to because of the traffic. Most
of the other events in life are scheduled to occur at specfic times (do you
miss your childs soccer game because it is "inconvenient"? no most people
make an effort to get there ) School, church, work for most people and most
retail stores have set hours. Farmers markets only appeal to a certain
segment of the population. FM are sucessful as a function of the repeat
customers. In this area most of our sales at the FM are made in the first
two hours of the market no matter what time it is. I agree that 7am is
early our best market is 10am to 1pm Saturdays. In our past experience it
is always the peddlers who want the longer hours, they don't have a farm to
work. The purpose of a Farmers market is for Farmers to sell their product
and make money. It allows the customer to feel more confident that the
product they are buying is a fresher better product than they will get
elsewhere and gives them a connection with the person who is growing it.
How many of you have a meaningful relationship with the grocery store clerk?
The FM is not a grocery store or a convience store it is a specialty "store"
a place for people to go to because they want to not because they have to.
The FM has a special product for sale, one that is not available at the
grocery store or convience store and that is what needs to be emphasised
McDonalds makes a lot of money and sells a lot of hamburgers but "Chez
Pannisse" in California does pretty good too and isn't open McDonalds hours.
This has become very convoluted, but I guess what I am trying to say is that
if people really want to come to the Farmers Market they will come no matter
what the hours are and it is the job of the FM to make them want to come.
It will always be inconvient for some people no matter how many times you
change hours or days to accomodate them.
----- Original Message -----
From: Jeffery Blake <echoecho AT bedford.heartland.net>
To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 9:05 PM
Subject: [market-farming] Re: peddlers, politics & convenience


> Uuuuh. I guess I'm not advocating anything. I hope I didn't misundertand
> the point of the last post. I thought he said the farmer's convenience is
> more important that the customer. I'm not certain now. I think length of
> marketing day/time/duration of the market is probably relative to the
people
> who are customers or are potential customers. That might vary from area
to
> area, city to rural, age of populace etc. My point was that the customer
is
> at least as important as the farmer. If I misunderstood Gary, I am sorry.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <mckemie AT inetport.com>
> To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
> Sent: Monday, February 12, 2001 8:24 PM
> Subject: [market-farming] Re: peddlers, politics & convenience
>
>
> > >
> > > Boy! I couldn't disagree more. I think under no circumstances should
we
> > > ever think that the farmer is more important than the customer! I
> don't
> > > think any marketer even if he is a farmer will ever get very far with
> this
> > > attitude. This amazes me. I think perhaps going this far puts the
> farmer
> > > on a pedestal. To me the key to this whole farmers market thing is
the
> > > customer/farmer relationship. When a balance is struck between what
the
> > > consumer wants and what farmers can sustain we should be happy.
Modern
> > > grocery stores place the consumer over the producer. We should never
> allow
> > > the farmers market to place the farmer over the consumer. I think
that
> > > would make us worse than them.
> > >
> > I'm not sure what you are advocating. Can you be more specific? The
> > post below specifically advocates short duration infrequent markets. Do
> > you advocate long hours? If so, how long? Do you advocate frequent
> > markets? If so, how frequent? Daily?
> > >
> > > > The convenience, serving the customer thinking leads to the everyday
> all
> > > day
> > > > farmers market where there are no farmers just peddlers. The
farmers
> > > market
> > > > is for the convenience of the farmer. Short hours, once or purhaps
> twice
> > > a
> > > > week lend to the ideal of the customer getting there early to get
the
> best
> > > > freshest produce. The farmers market needs to be a special event,
> with
> > > > customers coming because it is special.
> >
> > --
> > Onward! Through the Fog!
> > Willie
> > http://austinfarm.org/homegrown
> >
> > ---
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>
> ---
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