Market Farming

[sora AT coldreams.com]

I co-manage a small Farmer's Market (10-20 vendors).  We are also in a
great location, downtown within view of the highway.  But it's a parking
lot.  Most of the time the market was "an avenue" that was open on both
ends which encourages what we call and hate "drive-bys".  We tried closing
off the ends with music on one end and barriors on the other.  Much
better.  Then one week we tried a circle, it was like some kind of
miracle.  There was no special event, no music, just our usual vendors on a
Sat. we all expected to be very slow.  It turned out to be every vendor's
best day!  We all were shaking our heads, counting bucks and talking about
the Power of the Circle.
Visited a nearby market, much larger, extremely sucessful.  Its layout was
all around the outside of a circular park, with grass space in the center,
pavillion for music at one end....perfect......



 Hi, I've been ruminating upon this subject also; looking back I'm
> wondering about the layout of our market, wondering about the setup: We
> have a great venue, located downtown in a park, and our footprint is of
> a long "avenue, with producers along one side, and crafters on the
> other side; however, I'm wondering about what other creative layouts
> are out there..Any input is always appreciated.
>