Are you advertising? If not, that's a good place to start. You might be able to get the local paper(s) to write a story about you. That did wonders for our market this year.

Put notices up in all the local health-food stores, anywhere that is connected to people and gardening (nurseries, local seed and feed stores, etc.), see if the local papers will let you insert a flier in a mid-week edition, get mentioned in the local give-away neighborhood papers. Try the local radio and TV stations, as a human interest story (see what interesting angles YOU can come up with to tempt them, interesting or unusual vendors, products, etc.). Hand out fliers where-ever you think there will be an audience. Have you figured out WHO your buyers are in terms of age, income, where they live, what they buy, etc? If so, aim your advertising toward them as much as possible. If not, can you do an informal poll of your clientel and see if there are any common threads running through the answers you get?

Have you thought about another day of the week? most weekends people go someplace else other than downtown, here we moved ours to tuesdays(from sat) and that alone realy helped, maby gear it towards people going home from work or ?? Just my thoughts Brian

I had a thought as I was driving home this evening. What about offering a "door-prize" basket (don't have to actually have a basket, a bag would do, although baskets are nicer) of 4-5 items, on a rotating schedule, whatever they have the most of, from all the vendors. Publicize the winner in the local paper, which they should publish since it's a news item. While they may cut it to only one sentence, if you do this weekly, you will be getting weekly mention, and maybe the items and donors would be mentioned if room allowed. Of course, this works only if it's legal, which you should probably check out...

Get the city or downtown corp to help promote it ,it is, after all helping the downtown. If they are already involved ask them to send out a weekly email to their list and remind them about the market and what is avalable. If the farmers have customer email list ,as I do, have them send out weekly reminders. We have done this in our markets and it does help. The local tv station may want to do a story on the market. Ours have each year.
The garlic Lady

This year our market advertized on billboards instead of newspapers, it seemed to make a difference.

Get chefs to do demos, they really draw the crowds.

Sorry to hear that it is failing. Perhaps changing the location to the corner of a parking lot of a local mall or wherever people are running their Saturday errands.

Is there plenty of easily accessable parking, and are there draws from the surrounding shops/stores - are they open when, or shortly after the market is? Would they be open to any joint advertising? I have to say that it takes a while for these things to get going, and sometimes you just have to hang in there. BUT, the more advertising you can do, if only word of mouth, the better.

Do any of the vendors have a "private" clientel? Would they be willing to send out a flier or e-mail to "their" clients about the Market, or would the market be able to use their mailing lists for advertising fliers?

How is your market organized? Do you have a board of directors of some sort? Do you have a market manager?

It sounds like you have a nice variety of vendors but you have no community support.

i have been involved with a new market in a college town in SW Ohio and we just finished a really good first year and we did not do a lot of advertising because we simply did not have the money.

but what we did do is formed a steering committe last november to plan out the market and on that steering committee we had an equal mix of growers and community members. we emnlisted the help of the city through their convention bureau person (who was a huge help getting us over many large hurdles). By April we had created a 5 member board made up of a mix of growers and community members.

because the community is involved in the market it has become very popular with the people and we have steadily gotten better crowds all season. the last day of the year was our best of the year, this has never happened to me in my 10 years of marketing.I believe the people turned out in droves to say goodbye to us farmers. one woman brought flowers for everyone, another customer gave out wonderful lemon cookies to his favorite farmers. I got lots of hugs and it was a bittersweet day. i was astonished by the support this market got from its' regular customers.

So get your local customer base involved and things should fall into place.

Lucy

Oh yeah, get a hold of the book "The New Farmers' market by eric Gibson, et. al. It is a real gem of a resource.

The other thought I had was to have music of some kind. Live would, of course be better, but it would have to be "good" - your nephew's garage-band should only make it if they CAN play!!! This would draw crowds, and also make for more advertising. You should be able to find some form of music most weeks who would be glad to play for the pickings (busking) so all you would have to provide for them would be the space, and maybe electricity for amplifiers. Again, check on the legalities.

I fully agree with Lucy - if you can get the community involved, then you are light years ahead!! The convention bureau, and the tourism office should be helpful, also.

The SC Nat'l Public Radio does weekly (maybe more often, I don't always listen) interviews at noon with various food/farm/tourist things, either chefs, market managers, growers, etc. Does your NPR do the same, can you get on their list? And are you listed in the tourist handouts as a destination/fun thing to do on weekends? Are there good restaurants in the area to draw tourists?

For the rest of the year - and it's a bit late, but better than never - can you push the Christmas ideas? Foods, decorations, gifts, caroling, etc., etc.?

Thank you for all your great input. The above ideas our market currently has are weekly fliers in local businesses, chef demos, promotion from clientle lists, market board of directors, and live music. In previous seasons we had some media attention in the form of newpaper and TV spots.

I, personally, have suggested the market basket giveaway (at least to get the winner to come back), billboards (daily), and most of all a new location.

I have beleived from the start that is our failing. We are in the ghetto with no walk by or drive by traffic on Saturday morning. The only reason why we are there is the Starfish Cafe, a resturant run by the Union Mission that trains homeless/at-risk people in food service. Only last season did they start opening during market time. Although we are close to downtown, I don't beleive that is our true market either. No real middle class families, just uber-rich and college students.

Well, last Saturday we did a little bit better due to pleading and I'm in it for next week too...I'll let you know how it turns out...Thanks again for all your good ideas...deb

Try looking on Google for the Delancy Street Cafe - it was/is a similar set-up for training homeless people in San Francisco. They ended up (it's been 5 years since I was in San Francisco!, so it may be different now )with an upscale restaurant, which became a "destination' spot, but started with, to the best of my recollection, with a moving company, and then sold Chrismas trees, among other things. Not that you should exactly copy them, but you might get some ideas you can pass on to the powers-that-be.

If there is no reason other than the market for people to come there, then the market needs a LOT of extras; extra ads, extra special vendors, extra persistence, etc., etc. If, after 2 years, you really aren't making it, see if you can interest any professors or any students from a local college - from marketing, business, advertising, whatever, departments that might have insights or ideas, and see if the market can become a real-life seminar subject. It won't cost anything, and you might get some really good suggestions.

However, I am inclined to agree with you. You might just need to move to do well.

nothing against the "uber-rich and college students" but the people that buy for markets are the middle, The rich have someone buy for them and the college students have no idea what to do with fresh veg.. in short try a new day or a new place (please take this with a grain of salt) Brian

I love the uber-rich and college students. The rich have the money and like high quality food. Around here the UR come in person to the market because it is a social event for them. major face time action.

the students are teachable and every college has the hippie granola group of students who can be easily talked into going to the farmers' market and buying food.

Most college towns also have an aging hippie contingency that love buying local grown whole organic foods.

Actually i have found I cannot count on the middle to have economic sustainability. I used to sell in a market that had few uber rich or students and the middle people over time left the FM for Wal-Mart because of price.

The hippies, Uber rich and students tend to look at quality over price and that's what a farmers' market must have in a customer because ain't no way a small farm can compete on price with a big box store that can buy and resell in huge quantities.

I agree with ohiorganic Our markets are the same- very educated (uber-rich) and the Hippe type young college students. Both are seeking organic/local produce and the odd varieties you can't find at the grocery stores. I am able to get a better price at these markets and seem to be more appreciated. I have in the past sold at markets were the price only was the determining fator in what sold.
GL

Our markets are all high end. Our CSA supports families with an average income (we think) of at least 200,000. And all of these people started as regular market customers.

There is a mind set among many lower income people that they do not have time to prepare food (which may be true).. If they come to market they are more likely to buy bakery goods then produce although they will sometimes buy frueits, berries, or tomatoes.

Our market has something going on almost every week. Starting with a dandoline festivle and going through Thanksgiving. If you are looking to make it good for vendors you need to get regulars. At our market the regulars start buying before market offically opens. By 9:30 (market opens at 7:30) 90% of the people who plan on buying have come and gone. But you need to hook into people with a commitment to local food. You are hooked up with your Savanna Slow Foods group aren't you? If you are not you really should! These are people with a deep commitment to supporting local food, at our market they will run demonstrations a couple times a year, but there members are great customers, and bring more!

(Sorry I have rambled)

I have a feeling that a lot of people, like me, have read through this thread with a certain amount of anxiety and have felt that after all that has been said about advertising, that they don't have anything to contribute. The anxiety comes from concern about the performance of their own markets.

Lushoasis, you have described an inner city market and you should know that many markets in these locations couldn't have even started without the WIC and Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Programs. You have a group of goodhearted people as administrators. They should be looking to these nutrition programs or similar ones to "ratchet up" the sales of fresh produce.

The market where I sell is in an urban center. A good 20% of the sales are to low-income folks who have vouchers. A lot of our "better heeled" customers seem to really appreciate that these elderly folks and the moms with the strollers are down there to buy the healthful food. If anything, it seems to encourage everyone to attend.

Advertising is okay but the best and cheapest is word-of-mouth. Getting a good base of customers in and having them find good quality produce is what leads to success.

Good luck,
Digit

I don't know if your climate will allow it, but why don't you have a continuous market through the summer...it seems like customers just get in the habit of going to market and then there is a break...then a fall market of only 5-6 weeks.
Ann

Hi - i have really enjoyed reading these posts. Just wanted to let you know what i do - when i sell my honey at markets, if the weather permits, i wear my honeybee costume...i also have stickers for the children. This brings the parents to my stand and they see what i have to offer. I also have pictures of my hives, bees on blossoms (closeups) and stuff like that. Some of the other vendors have done the same as i have with good results - attracting the children with stickers or balloons...offering "tasters" is also a great idea. People remember you. They always buy when they have something to taste. Also, offer a senior citizen discount if possible. The older people will spread the word - you'll be selling!
:-)

Well, we had to end our fall season early this year...One week I couldn't go vend (I am a really, really small hobby gardener) and only one other vendor showed up, so they cancelled it. The next week they got me to go because they "didn't want to go out like that" and I spent most of my time coloring at the children's table, oh, none of the other vendors showed up...

The organizers of this market still would like to continue in the spring with increased advertising. But I think all of the vendors have truly lost faith in it. Other vendors and customers are now looking to me to start a new market...I already do way too much!

I've been sporadically selling to neighbors and local resturants since November, but it's not as fun as going to the market, displaying all my goods with fancy signs and seeing people and their dogs.

Oh well, It was not the first farmer's market to fail in Savannah, maybe the third.

Thanks for you input and support and I'll update you in the spring...deb