Market Farming

["Patrick Mulkey" <Mulkey AT tunl.duke.edu>]

On the subject of 25% resell of produce it will be impossible to control and
will only get worst. Here in Carrboro, NC we have to produce everything we
sell.
On the value added we use 30% purchased material and that is a judgment
call. So if you have a $10 item then you could have only used $3 to purchase
the materials to make the product.
How we deal with price flooring is we have none. If someone is undercutting
everyone for example selling tomatoes for .50 cents a pound and the average
price is at $1.25 then a couple of members will  speak to that vendor and
try to reason with them. What we have found is most folks even new ones will
survey the market to see what the going price is.
If you are not having a manager the first year then what expenses will you
have? If the fees are reasonable then you will get a good mix of small and
large growers. In Carrboro we are currently having this debate. Our fees are
currently $5 a single space (10X10) with an annual membership fee of $15.
The current proposal is $12 per week per single space and membership fee of
$50. We do have double and triple(2) space vendors and they pay more but we
limit those folks or we would have 40 double space vendors and fill up the
market. I am a single space small farmer and believe we would lose diversity
of the market if raise the fees too high. Thereby pushing our smaller
vendors out. Currently we have 2 managers one for Sat. and one for Wed. we
also have a special events person and contract with a PR firm to help in
working with the press.
Hope this helps.
Patrick Mulkey
Chapel Hill, NC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim and Julie Vaughn" <jjvaughn AT juno.com>
To: "Market Farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 9:12 AM
Subject: [market-farming] Re: Farmers' Market start-up

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