I think that people are going to buy their produce/baking/fruit, regardless of other expenditures at market.

I sell a variety of plants, crafts and flower bouquets at FM. At this time of year, flowers are my main sales and I often don't even take the crafts. Earlier in the season, I sell mostly plants. I don't worry much that someone is buying only one or the other. I don't worry much that they're visiting the woodworker guy and buying something from him instead of my (not woodworking) crafts. I really don't believe someone is choosing between a bunch of carrots and a bag of potatoes over some non-food item. If money is tight, they're going to buy food first and leave the flowers or crafts for another day. But people have different interests and that's the great thing about having a lot of different vendors to bring in a lot of different people to market. If it were only vegetables, only people wanting vegetables would come. Same if it were a market selling only baking, or a market selling only crafts, or only flowers.

I don't think there is competition between vendors who sell different items, only between vendors who sell the same thing.

Our market has crafters outnumbering growers 2:1
I don't particularly care for it but I think that the people who come to the market for produce buy produce. The ones that come to just wander and look, don't usually bring that much money with them. I think if you're going to spend $200 dollars on something (like furniture), it's not going to effect your grocery budget. However, the crafters that are selling cheap jewlery, magnets, knick knacks and especially candy certainly can funnel money away from the farmers. At our market the people usually make a bee line for the produce and eggs because they sell out fast. Kinda makes me wonder why the crafters haven't nocticed that and planted a garden!

We allow crafters at our farmers market. It provides additional color and variety to the market and the crafters we have are using their talents in producing and selling something they make. We have a rule that you must grow or produce at least 75% of what you sell. This keeps us from being a flea market and looking junky. Having crafters interspersed amongst the produce vendors helps provide a buffer between vendors selling the same kinds of produce. Most of our shoppers are coming to buy produce and we are a small rural community, so I think there are days where the crafters don't really do all that well. On the other hand [depending on the crafts], crafters can sell fewer items and have a good day. We have less crafters this year than last year and a couple of us sell a few crafts along with produce and plants.
There is a town north of us that has what they call a "European Market" which is open to a lot more than just farmers selling produce. You'll find a lot more crafts up there + soapmakers, even elk meat and because its not technically a farmers market you may see less farmers there so its not billed as such. The way I see it, there is room for other entrepreneurs whose talents may lie in different areas - except for the nature of the product, aren't we basically the same? Trying to make some income off the fruits of our labors?

I sell in a very small town market that doesn't allow crafts to be sold. I can see how crafters could bring more customers through the gates, and some days that would be a nice thing. On the other hand, I feel that if it's going to be called a farmers' market, then it should have only things you'd expect to get from a farm, like fruits, veggies, and flowers. And honey?

And if the cherry grower wants to bring cherry pies? In our market, food products like jams, maple syrup and fruit pies are allowed if the producer has a licensed commercial kitchen and the items are not sold with the intent of being consumed at the market. (Good luck proving the intent part of that last one, huh?) I guess that means that caramel apples are out.

I got a little bit off topic there. Sorry.

ThinMan

If the craft is farm produced I believe it belongs in a farmers market. We have friends who raise grass fed meats. One of their meats is lamb. They also sell yarn and finished goods from the wool produced on their farm. We had a licensed kitchen to make jams and jellies from the small fruits we grow on the farm and pickles from the vegetables we grow on the farm. The small amount of sugar, when used, didn't come from the farm nor did the vinegar and spices used in pickles.

Our farmers Market is a year- round indoor market. for the farmers it is a growers only market with a wide variety of meats eggs vegetables fruit and one dairy then we have food vendors that make fresh from scratch foods ethnic foods , breads and other bake goods, homemade pimento cheese, salsa ,granola etc. We have 2 free trade coffee and 1 tea vendor. Then we have craft/art vendors everything from earrings,aprons and clothing, knitted items, pottery, metal sculpture, photography, candles , soap, Homemade cleaning etc these are hand made items.

This works for our market- making it the place to be on Saturday mornings. Customers can eat breakfast sip coffee talk with friends and get almost everything on there shopping list from local vendors instead of heading to "Walmart" . It is nothing like a flea market either! Being a year round market the non farm vendors help keep the market going all winter. After all how many people think about going to a farmers market after the summer is ended. We (with season extention) we are able to sell till at least Jan. but if we didn't have other vendors we wouldn't have enough farmers to draw people there in the fall winter months. I think we help each other not hurt. During the summer when berries and produce are plentyful people are there to buy fresh produce first and may buy craft items if they are buying for a special occasion and during the late fall folks are thnking about holiday shopping and come for the crafts and then realize there is fresh produce still avalable. Most of our farmers have tried to come up with craft type or value added items we can sell for holiday shoppers too.

Thanks for all the responses. As i said I posted this on a wood crafters board and the responses were similar. I am convinced that high quality crafters are an asset to the market and have decided to go back to enjoying myself and trying to eliminate resellers from our market.