By Andy Fellenz

“It’s looking a lot like Wegmans over there.” This is what my wife, Jan, heard one morning from another vendor as she was setting up. Wegmans is the #1 supermarket in Western New York where we live, and while the comment might have been meant as a dig, it wasn’t to us. Our goal is to sell, and if looking like Wegmans makes our customers comfortable and helps us sell, that’s what we’re going to do.
In 2003 we sold at two western New York farmers’ markets in Geneva and Canandaigua. Each market has its own personality and we learned through the season how to tweak our display and pricing to improve our sales at each market. Geneva is a well-established Thursday morning market with a lot of regulars who come to buy. Canandaigua is a Saturday morning market, a little more upscale with many customers who are there not just to buy produce, but also to experience the market. For Geneva, a “Joe Friday just the facts ma’am” approach worked well, but in Canandaigua we needed to be a little bit more agri-tourist minded with samples and some “fun” items.
The spots in our markets are small, only 10’ – 12’ wide so we need to make every inch count. Our market niche is nice produce at a fair price. We are organic and charge more than most of the conventional growers, but less than the artisanal producers. We sell mainly farmers’ market staples: tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, sweet corn, melons, potatoes, squash, a few herbs, some eggs and raspberries. With the exception of the raspberries we have a fair amount of competition from the other vendors. Since we try not to compete on price, we need to ensure that our stand is welcoming and encourages people to buy.
Before every market, Jan drew up a stand plan showing where everything would go in the display. The plan changed week to week depending upon what we had for sale and which items were in abundance and needed to be emphasized. If we had lots of something like sweet corn or melons, they would go in a separate display in front of our table with signs to draw attention to them. We also featured samples of items like raspberries, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes and melons. When we had lots of tomatoes, we displayed multiple package sizes – singles, quarts, 4 quarts, 8 quarts and half-bushel to ensure that we had a package size to satisfy everyone from snackers to canners. With the stand plan, Jan knew the night before where everything would go and once she arrived at market her helper could work from the plan in setting up rather than wasting time asking questions about what goes where.
Here are some of the factors we considered in designing our stand:
1. Ease of set-up and cost – The stand can be completely set up and stocked in less than 30 minutes. We use a $30 shade structure to shade the vegetables and provide protection from rain. Our table is a used hollow core door sitting on two folding sawhorses. The table is covered with a picnic tablecloth.
2. Appearance – We wanted the stand to look nice with a traditional feel, but not quaint. Vegetables sold by the piece, like squash, peppers and cucumbers are displayed in wooden 8 quart baskets with a cloth on the bottom. We place a 2X4 under the back of the baskets to tip them towards the customers. Melons, sweet corn and other bulky vegetables are displayed at a corner of the stand in apple crates. Tomatoes, potatoes and frying peppers are in quart baskets. Basil and cilantro are tied in bunches and placed in small buckets with a little water in the bottom at the back of the table. All of the items at the back of the table sit on top of riser boxes so that they are above the baskets in the front of the display.
We also place a large sign at the edge of the stand with our farm name, location and a list of all the items we are selling that day.
3. Quick, unobtrusive restocking – With the exception of raspberries, which are packed out as they are picked, we bring all produce to market in picking lugs or bushel crates and do our pack-out at market. This gives us flexibility if one package size is selling better than the other and also makes loading the truck much more efficient.
When we set up our stand we organize the lugs alongside the truck, under the table and in the bed of the truck so that we have quick and easy access to each item for restocking. As we sell we continually replenish the display so that it always looks full.
All of the items we sell by the quart or 4 quarts are packed in a plastic bag laid into the quart or 4-quart basket. When they are sold it is quick and easy to pull out the bag and hand it to the customer or place it in another bag along with their other purchases. We try to stay ahead in packing quarts so that as soon as one sells we can pull another quart off the truck and place it on the table. During slow times we’ll pack out a half dozen or so quarts from the lugs.
4. Clean, lush and full – Nothing is more discouraging to a customer than a stand that looks empty or disheveled. Potential customers won’t even stop to look, they just walk on by. We wash everything before it goes into the cooler so it is clean when it goes on the truck. We also keep a squirt bottle at the stand for spritzing the produce to keep it shiny and fresh looking. Locate the cash-box inconspicuously, but have it readily accessible and in a position where you are facing your customers Keep your bags and baskets easy to get at so that you can pack a customer’s order quickly and while facing the market.
5. Mark all prices clearly – Many people don’t want to dicker, or even ask a price. If they don’t see a price they won’t even stop. We hand write all prices on 3X5 cards and use clothespins to attach them to the baskets. With the hand written 3X5 cards, we can easily change prices during market if we need to raise or lower a price to keep our pricing in line with others at market.
6. Display your Farmers Market Nutrition Program sign prominently – We posted three FMNP signs; one up high at each end of the booth and a third in the center of the booth in front of our table. The signs were very effective in drawing FMNP customers to our booth. Make your prices FMNP/WIC friendly. Almost 20% of our sales were to FMNP customers and their preference was to purchase exclusively with their coupons. For us this meant that we had to set our prices so that it was easy for people to make their purchases in $2 increments.
7. Lastly, don’t go solo. Except for a few days early in the season we always brought at least one of the kids with us to help restock the stand, carry produce to a customer’s car, run the market to check other vendors’ prices. Having a second, third or even fourth person at the stand was invaluable. These personal touches helped us to develop regulars who returned to our stand every week