Yes you can blame them. Have none of you ever heard of a monopoly? My argument to them is that the customers would be very displeased if they found out about the price fixing. Personally, when I go to a market and every booth there has produce for the exact same price, I get irritated, don't buy anything and I don't come back. Instead I will go to the supermarket where it's easier.

Maybe you can present your veggies in a little different way. If they sell green peppers by the pound, you could sell them x for a $1.

I think a lot of arguments would be settled if they defined 'Farmers Market' vs 'Produce Market'. I think at a farmer's market you should be buying produce from the farmer that grew it, whereas at a produce market the fruit may be locally grown but it is being sold by someone that works for the farmer. Just my opinion. This is why I dislike the state farmers markets here in North Carolina. They all sell the same produce - I mean that every eggplant is identical. All the vendors have the same stuff, sold the same way in matching bundles. Its as if they just bought everything off the same truck -- because that is what they do! The market only requires that they grow 49% of their offerings and they bend the rules if you grow a seasonal crop (like blueberries). You can keep your booth all year and just sell normal produce and then shift into your farm's product during your season. Most of what they are selling is the same identical produce you can buy in the grocery store (a lot of our grocery stores sell local produce, like all of them).

Its even worse for live plant vendors (what I used to sell). Big mega nurseries outside of town can send a truck load of crop to the market, hire some college kids to sit there all day and sell it for them, only charge the "manager" for the product that was sold, they even send a crew back up to the market to haul home anything that didn't sell. Very hard to compete with.

All that being said, a friend of mine has set up a business selling locally grown or locally fabricated food products. All to bring attention the small businesses out there that use state grown produce. Her point is that you cannot expect every farmer to be wonderful salesmen in addition to everything else they have to do.

I still maintain that things would make more sense to the customers if markets were defined.

"send a truck load of crop to the market, hire some college kids to sit there all day and sell it for them, only charge the "manager" for the product that was sold, they even send a crew back up to the market to haul home anything that didn't sell"

This is exactly what I have to compete with.
And what your friend is doing is something like what I am thinking of doing next year. I will sell to someone who can haul it and sell it. My gross will be less, but I will have less work.
spogarden, I am in your state. When I say I was discouraged from lowing prices, the manager slyly suggests that she doesn't want discord or her venders bickering with each other. One of the other vendors, not the big one also told me they like things the way they were. Apparently they sell enough at those higher prices that they make enough by the end of the day. Sometimes I feel like showing up and just really selling for a low ball price. Just to tick them off and force their hand. They have no legal standing and I wonder if they realize how much trouble they could get into.

how much trouble can they get into?
if you can't compete with other vendors in your market i suggest changing what you're doing. get your tomatoes to market earlier in the season than they do. grow varieties they don't. develop a relationship with your customers so they look forward to seeing you at the market. emphasize that you are the grower with signs.
its sometimes hard to accept but the more big vendors the more market traffic. make it work for you.

I think randy is on the right track.

I recently started helping a vendor sell at a new market. Most of the vendors are local. One vendor, while local, has quite a large farm and has a very big, attractive set-up at the market. It's almost as if this one vendor has as much to sell as all the other vendors combined. The situation is a bit different - the farm workers are indeed selling and the prices are pretty consistent with other vendors. It's just the sheer size of them that attracts.

Their stand draws a lot of customers. I guess there is something to be said for the image of bounty and quantity. The stand that has less of everything, displayed in a less creative way, just doesn't attract the same crowd, even if that produce is just as good or even better. You know, like how no one wants to buy the last, lonely tomato or lettuce, etc, even though it's just as good as the first one that sold?

So, in response, I think the smaller vendor has to have something that sets her apart. Be creative with your stand and/or display. As randy says, emphasize that you are the grower, and then display that knowledge of your products. Grow items that set you apart from the big boys. You'll have to work extra hard to build that rapport with the customer. And one advantage of being smaller is that you may have a few extra seconds to chit-chat or discuss your product with the customer.

Good luck! I hope you don't get too discouraged!
Dee

did you read my OP?
"large growers who grow everything, and I mean everything, in large quantities" They grow virtually all varieties. I know the one grows over fifty varieties of peppers alone. Seriously. I wouldn't mind if it was one family growing that and showing up at one or two markets, but when they pull into 30-50 markets with eighteen wheelers...
"Everything is professionally done and appearing" My display is pretty much as good as their display. Difficult to improve on this.
How much trouble? While I understand that a market can set a floor on prices, can you imagine the reaction of the clientèle of that market to learn that the prices are fixed by fiat? And that "floor" is what the big guys are charging and I am not permitted to go under it. That is really my main complaint.
"emphasize that you are the grower with signs" this I am doing and it helps. But you know that the "little Italian green grocer" went the way of the dodo while the big Kroger's of the world survive. Some people just gravitate to the big displays.
No, I will go back to wholesale. Less money, but less work.

so where is your market geraldo?

"...did you read my OP?..."

Not sure who this is directed at, or perhaps it is directed at everyone who answered, but yes, I for one did read your original post.

"large growers who grow everything, and I mean everything, in large quantities". Sorry, I misunderstood. By this I didn't think necessarily that the grower grew 50 kinds of peppers, but that the grower grew 50 different vegetables, and lots of them. You weren't that specific the first time. Do they grow heirlooms, or items that may appeal to minority markets?

Also, since you kept referring to them as "big growers", I guess I assumed that they were bigger than you. Perhaps I misunderstood here too. Sorry.

And I for one didn't mean to imply that your display was lousy, but just that "big growers" often have "big displays". If you are happy with your display, then I guess that isn't the problem either.

In reading your last post, Geraldo, I get the feeling that maybe you weren't looking for suggestions to fight the big guys, as I originally thought, but maybe just venting? It seems like you made the decision already to go back to wholesale.

Good luck with that decision. Sorry the market route didn't work out for you. Hope you have better results with wholesale.

:)
Dee

I am in Washington State. Yes, I guess in answering spogarden's post the rest of you wouldn't guess that spogarden is Spokane gardener.
The growers I am referring to have, at least in one case, hundreds of acres. They grow everything from heirloom toms to persimmons, rhubarb, and anything you can think of.
They deliver to their associates with trucks. In one case they meet their associate just down the road from the market and transfer to the associate's one ton so that they don't pull into the market with a big truck.
While I don't like the "hogs" going to every market with their associates (and thus not being in the spirit), I do realize that is the nature of farming. That is their business plan and I can deal with it. They have worked hard to develop their farms and markets.
As my OP stated what I don't like is being told what I must charge. Being able to sell for a little less is part of a legitimate marketing strategy that I am being denied.
I am an old man and have farmed for decades. I will miss visiting with the people. But I am trying to do this without hiring someone. I can't be here and there. Some of the other vendors are apparently happy to make a hundred dollars on a Saturday.
So digger, yeh I guess I am just venting. And like Randy said, if you can't compete change what you are doing.

Can you find another market? what do other vendors in your position at the market think about this issue?

geraldo - Most States have laws against price fixing (check your State Statutes) - It started with the Sherman Antitrust Act! Call a congressman, ombudsman, even your city officers or a lawyer, to file a complaint or just to have an official look into the price fixing and perhaps even to talk the market manager where you sell. It makes me wonder what that person is getting from this.

The little market that I sell at does not allow commercial farmers to sell unless they themselves are manning the booth. Are there really 30-50 market managers in your State who are allowing the "big boys" to overrun their markets? What are they getting out of it? Again, I'd ask "What are they getting out of it"?

Randy, it runs the gamut. Some of the other vendors don't like it and say so, some don't like it but say little, some accept and are ok with making a hundred bucks a day. Like you said in a previous post, it does make for more traffic. I imagine some do quite well at the bigger markets. Another vendor has started setting up alongside the road, again. And I was told it was for this reason.
I was told these bigger operators have also started to sell in some Oregon markets. I did check out other markets, but they are in ninety percent of them. One guy encouraged me to come to his market and when I said "No, you have Giant Farms there, it wouldn't pay", he seemed genuinely disappointed.
I checked out marketing to restaurants and smaller groceries, but they are selling to them too.
I checked out the laws a bit.
I don't believe that price fixing quite relates to farmer's markets in that respect. What I discovered was that a market manager can set a reasonable floor on the price. I can understand that as I would not want to see people coming in for a month, selling heirloom toms for 75 cents a pound, and then leaving. But what is reasonable to the market manager might not be reasonable to market clientèle. I think they could get into legal problems, but how do you know without going down that road? And I just don't want to go there. Years ago a wise man told me to stay away from lawyers, accountants and government employees.
Nan, how could you preclude a farmer from having his hired man go to the market, or his sister, or his mother-in-law? It would be difficult.
Well, I did just want to vent, or complain. Thanks everyone for listening and I am sorry for being a wet blanket.

A little off the topic but a "Breath Of Fresh Air" nonetheless...

I live outside a large city in a rural community. Last night I went to a meeting at the County Extension Office where a Horticulture Specialist was on a fact finding mission. He was trying to see how much interest there was in growing and selling to local restaurants. Apparently he is working with a number of chefs at high-end restaurants, (five star), who are very interested in buying locally grown - fresh produce for their menus. He stated that the chefs are very interested in the small "local" growers, and support them in any way they can. They are also paying top dollar for quality produce. He told a story about a local (13) year old boy that was growing a particular fruit that the chefs love, and that he's making a lot of money selling to them.

This was an interesting meeting, and hopefully this will spread as more and more people discover the benefits of buying locally from smaller growers.

I say good that they are holding up prices. Competition all too often lowers prices to where people live in poverty. You do not see lawyers and doctors lowering prices to compete.

You have to earn a decent price for your product. You want the prices to be as high as possible.

I would love to sell in that market at the same prices as the big guys. I bet I could sell out just fine. At high prices I could make a living wage.

I find all too many people do not understand money. they wind up working for peanuts or almost for free. That is a form of self abuse. If you love yourself then you will shower abundance of high prices upon yourself. It ia an act of self hatred to work as a slave for low wages. It is the responsibility of every person in your trade to work as hard as possible to get high prices.

Those who uncut prices are destroying their profession. Those who get high prices are helping all those who work in the professioin.

If the only way you can sell is by having the lowest price then you are in the wrong profession. Go find something you love. Express your love for farming and your veggies and people will flock to you.

Look at this pepper it is the greatest in the world for hot foods. Incredible. It is so outstanding. You just must try some. NO ONE ELSE HAS this pepper. It is my exclusive. Your entheusiasm will rub off onto the customer who will just have to buy some. that is why he is there. looking for something outstanding to take home. He is bored with regular food. He wants extra ordinary foods. You have them.