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  • From: Jack Moffitt <jackmoffitt AT gmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Market killers - top 10 list
  • Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:49:06 -0500

Have you any nominees?

Top ten methods of killing a farmers market
by Jack Moffitt
A loose collection of unique methods to kill your farmers market:
(No particular order)


1. Allow re-sellers to flood your market with cheap, often imported,
factory produce, so your local producers quit in disgust. (Dallas
Farmers Market perfected this technique by completely remaking itself
as a cheap imported furniture outlet, some years ago.)


2. Divide your potential customer and vendor bases as much as possible
with requirements that all produce be 'organic' or 'naturally grown'.
This will get rid of half of your potential vendors and irritate half
of your customers.


3. Be sure and flood your market area with crap sellers. Customers
just love wading past a sea of pot-holders and trinkets mumbling
'no-thanks' on their way to buy their veggies. Notice how your
favorite grocery store put the toy aisle in the produce section? Me
either.


4. Become the community salvation organization and flood your
potential customer parking areas with cars of those who came to get
the free bag, hat or t-shirt, then leave (but not before your regular
customers have circled the block twice and gave up on this week's
market).


5. A three-parter: A.) Lots of loud music ; B.) get that music as
close as possible to the shoppers and vendors; and C.) select music
that is offensive to most in attendance.

6. Just when you hit a successful stride and have made your market
part of the life of the vendors and customers, close the market for a
'season', a few months or whatever interval suits you and will cause
the most losses to your goodwill.

7. Move the market site. Screw those customers, they oughta get a Magellan.

8. Poison the potential vendor base with a strong dose of unexplained
rejections, rejections based on the divisions developed under premise
#2 above, etc. There is nothing like a strong cadre of ill-will
ambassadors to insure other vendors don't want to do business at your
market.


9. Don't advertise. It costs money, and you wouldn't want to impose on
the vendor averaging $12 per market selling that green stuff nobody
can identify, by charging a reasonable fee to cover advertising. After
all you might disrupt killer tactic # 7 's gains.

10. Repeat 1-9 as needed.

Jack Moffitt - market manager and vendor - Tex Mex border




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