Thinking about Farmers’ Markets There are lots of ways to direct-market foods at a farmers’ market, some of which perhaps not everyone is familiar with. To better visualize the distinctions among them, it is often helpful to such arrange variations on a theme along a spectrum. This article is presented as a description of what […]
Articles
Don’t Use Hanson Hanging Scales
December 22, 1992 Categoriesby Tom Roberts, Selling Outdoors, 1992. The first issue of Selling Outdoors contained an article about the State Bureau of Weights and Measures ruling on the Hanson scales that are commonly used at farmers’ markets. That ruling made it clear that in 1992 there should be no more Hanson hanging scales in use at markets. […]
U or I? The shape of your market
December 22, 1990 Categoriesby Tom Roberts (article from 1990’s Selling Outdoors) Larger markets, those with more than six or eight members regularly attending, often abandon the straight line style setup of smaller markets. Instead, they adopt a double line or “U” shape, where the marketers set up in two lines with displays facing one another. Orono and Camden […]
To peddle or not to peddle
December 22, 1990 Categoriesby Tom Roberts (from 1990’s Selling Outdoors) Whether to allow market members to buy some or all of what they sell could be a hotly debated subject or an easy consensus. Which occurs at your market depends upon your market’s history and its current makeup, as well as on your members’ vision of what your […]
Buying in for resale
December 9, 1990 Categories(article from 1990’s Selling Outdoors) There are few questions which bring more division among market ranks than whether to allow buying for re-selling, and if so under what terms. The state law, of course, says a seller at a farmers’ market must have at least 75% of their items grown by them, and 100% of […]