Tomorrow I am planning on a little site research at the West Chester Growers Market to put some numbers around my impressions of the ebb and flow of crowds at the market and different stands. I think a little formal data collection is in order since I’m pretty sure my feelings about the relative crowds and the number of roadblocks on the way to my favorite stands is heavily colored by how much of a hurry I’m in, how hot it is, and whether I managed a proper weekend breakfast and the required second cup of coffee.
Think good thoughts for the weather, please! (The 100+ heat has given way to brooding humid rain/thunder showers.)
Along with the wonderful produce and goods, crowds have become a notable feature of this market. It’s a lot more effort to negotiate the market now than 7 years ago when I first moved to town.
While the crowds are a heartening sign that the market is flourishing, there is also a bit of “too much of a good thing” aspect to them. The bigger the line at a stand, the less time the farmer/maker has to have even a very short casual conversation with a market customer, or to talk about the details of their farming practices, or how they raise an animal or choose an ingredient for a soap or jam or tea. Not to mention, if you have no option but to shop the market at a busy time in the day, you may be forced to make choices about shopping at different stands or skipping a day.
One of the comments that stuck with me from the first of the interviews for this project was from Lisa at my fav North Star Orchard. During our conversation, Lisa mentioned that one of the reasons they started their e-mail newsletter initially was to keep up conversations with customers, even if it’s somewhat one-sided (let’s be geeky… asynchronous), that were becoming harder to have at market as the markets got busier.
At least in my case, I completely agree with her thinking that one reason people come to the farmers market is to have a connection with the growers who they buy from. There are after all, other venues to get together with friends and neighbors that don’t involve a hot, fidgety line of local strawberry addicts.
So tomorrow’s plan is easy: every 30 minutes from 9 to 1 I’ll make a round of the market in semi-stealth and count the line at each stand, jot down a few notes about the demographics and number of feet (there are a lot of dogs at market!) of the line members, and maybe take a picture for posterity.
Links:
Both the growers market and North Start Orchards have e-mail newsletters If you would like to sign up to check them out. Sign up for North Star’s e-mail newsletter on their website or for the market’s newsletter on the lower left hand corner of the market site. Neither list is shared and both are low volume.
Or, see another side of the aspect of producer-consumer conversations on some market-related Facebook fan pages: for the market, the orchard, and another market vendor – Chile Spot.
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