Clatskanie Farmers Market

Astoria Sunday Market

Lake Oswego Farmers’ Market

Ontario Saturday Market

Montavilla Farmers Market

Jessica Love - Tigard Farmers Market

The Dalles

The Dalles Farmers Market

Farmers Market Fund - Board

Gorge Grown Food Network

Hollywood/Lloyd Farmers Market & OFMA Board member

Jeffrey O'Hara, USDA AMS

Excited about PSU market as always.

OFMA Board (and customer of Tigard Farmers Market)

Lane County Farmers Market

Rebecca Landis, Corvallis-Albany Farmers’ Markets and Corvallis Indoor Winter Market

Corvallis-Albany Farmers' Markets

SMIF Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation

University of Missouri Extension

Amanda- Umpqua Valley Farmers Market and Canyonville Farmers Market

Joining from Arizona to listen in

Farm Direct Nutrition Program (WIC/OHA)

CMI Milwaukie

Coos Bay Downtown Association Farmers Market

Farmers Market Coalition & OFMA's board

Farmers Market Fund!

Hillsboro Farmers' Markets

As Kelly said, feel free to chat me with any technical difficulties: Rachael Ward

If you have questions about the data, drop them here in the chat and I will make sure we get them answered!

Are stats affected by downward size migration of the markets? Medium to Small especially.

Are the small mkts in Central OR? The 2 positive

That is probably a pice of it, Kathy. Not all.

There are a couple of bigger central markets, so Rebecca is right - some but not all.

Are these sales and attendance numbers already accounting for there being less markets open in general this year?

What process do the markets use to measure sales at their own market?

Jeffery, the WAG is a common method. That stands for Wild Assed Guess.

Haha.

Vendor attendance counts are a reasonable approximation however, if markets are maintaining those

The BVSN data will interest you.

Meaning you weighted the data by market size?

We have three markets in one association. The space constrictions at our largest market affected the overall revenue picture for the market association.

These numbers seem to trend with what we are seeing with the many markets we work with throughout the state.

Sales at the Umpqua Valley Farmers Market increased. We did follow the trends with less vendors and occurrences.

Both Senior and WIC FDNP sales/redemption was lower in 2020

It lines up with our experience at CBDA FM. We opened a month late. Vendor space was half size due to requlations.

FDNP was hampered by loss of distribution channels.

Tigard Farmers Market - We are a medium market and grew in vendors this year. We also saw that vendors attended more.SNAP match was our highest yet.Sales were higher as well but that could be because more vendors participated.

Need more time to absorb.

When you write report, note that markets stopped advertising because 1) money short 2) fear of having too many customers at one time.

People’s Farmers’ Market sales were pretty similar, and SNAP Match was higher than ever. We also had fewer vendors overall and per market, due to spatial restrictions.

Lower customer count but higher gross sales (large market)

Example of our market's sales data collection system.

@Rebecca, good point!

All: OFMA does have some free data collection tools we can share with you (spreadsheets, templates, etc.) so please msg us if you’re interested!

@Lisa - that’s so interesting! I guess you retained you’re really key vendors and dedicated customers?

Yes! AORTA is awesome! So glad you’ll be working with them!

@Ashley, were your total sales the same or per vendor sales?

@Kelly yes, we got more space so we didn’t have to restrict our vendor numbers! Shoppers came to spend!

@Jessica - wow, you really bucked the trend for your market size/region!

@Lisa - nice work!

@Kelly I actually started in October, awesome managers and board before me!

@kelly I should have clarified that was token sales at the info booth. We don’t track individual vendors’ sales.

Recordings of OFMA’s previous r=webinars: https://www.oregonfarmersmarkets.org/event-proceedings

@Rebecca - re; your market sales data weighting question - yes. We looked at all the markets who scored high enough on a rating scale for data collection practices, then sorted them into size categories, came up with an avg for each size category and multiplied them by the total # of known farmers markets in the state in that size category to come up with totals for each size group. (Mallory checked our work and gave it her blessing ;)).

Could you tell us more about how the rates of turnover were calculated for those three categories? Does the percentage represent the percent of markets with turnover in those positions or is it showing the average rate of turnover (or something different)?

The % of responding markets who reported having turnover in each of those types of positions.

Got it, thanks :)

We could not backfill staffing, lower attendance and ended up having to move the market.

Figuring out how to close entrances and keep our lines going as fast as possible was my biggest challenge at Portland Farmers Market

Getting folks to not eat in market was also rough!

Managing customers on covid-19 guidelines.

Nothing quantifiable that I can come up with. The cultural losses might be mentioned in the final report.

LCFM biggest impact was shown in a decrease of vendor count, decrease in market income.

I’m curious how many markets kept some sort of programing

We saw a lot of markets having to change physical addresses/locations here in AZ due to site hosts that had restrictions on "events" being on their campuses.

Yes, how many actually had to move?

It’s Kelley’s prompt above that made me think.

Canyonville had to find a new location for the first 5 weeks of the season.

I know that all of the DUFB markets that were hosted at hospitals either cancelled their market or changed location

UVFM immediately went outside due to the pandemic, and we're still there. Brrrrr

LCFM was able to expand square footage

LCFM holiday market which is usually held inside at the lane events center, we decided to stay outside all season.

Albany FM holiday market was outside.

Hillsboro had to cancel 2 hospital markets and move our flagship Saturday market.

other sites that kicked markets out were healthcare clinics, churches, community colleges, and locations that had to co-host vaccine sites

Our numbers have increased being outdoors and staying visible.

That is very true! The city was very concerned to give us our permits to do it. We had to have many conversations to make it happen.

County attorney was going to nuke us in March 2020. He deferred to County Health. I believe our commitment to SNAP and DUFB helped OFMA get markets recognized as essential.

I am curious how different markets were able to accommodate their prepared food vendors, were they able to still set up? How did you ensure food togo only?

We went with zero seating even when it would have been legal. Protocols were too labor intensive for the restaurants. And we could not spare that space.

We had our food vendors on the end to accommodate the "grab and go".

@Alexis Lots of not eating in market signs, on every bench. Still had to personally enforce this rule if we saw folks eating in market

We know that these markets are not 100% representative of our whole fm community BUT it is a good jumping off point! :)

CBDA had a food court. We only had food trucks. We did not put tables, chairs out for the food court. We had multiple signs in the food court as well as all vendors had signage as well. Luckily there was green space just out of our FM footprint. We reminded people if they wanted to have this available, they need to help us. It was trying at times but as a community as a whole it was well received and supportive.

That “4 yrs or less” includes 2020, so 3 yrs or less coming into 2020 season :)

Wow, that means those core customers were SUPER committed to supporting those markets!

Are those sales on that chart in thousands?

Oh sorrY!

First year is always a steep learning curve.

So it seems like the 1st season is really THE make it/break it season for NBV’s? And retaining/supporting them in yr 1 them is key to growing vendor pool (if you’re trying to do that?)

That bump is short-season fruit?

This is my favorite slide - Market managers you KNOW you’re always telling your vendors they need to come consistently to build their customer base and presence - now you can say the data PROVES it!

Or we do a better job of vetting new vendors? We just piloted a training for potential new vendors - including IDg factors that may show they are not a good fit for FMs. I really appreciate this study of vendors.

Kathy I'd be interested to hear what factors you found that could show that vendors aren't a good fit for FMs.

Vendors who have low attendance rates could be either 1) vendors who attend sporadically throughout the season, or 2) vendors who simply leave the market mid-season. Do you have a sense of the breakdown between these in the BVSN data?

No, this was about short number of weeks with high numbers.

Several slides back. Sorry.

NBV farmers aren't really sure what will sell, or don't have loads of product or variety. There's a huge learning curve, or lack of knowledge of climate, extending the season, etc.

Some of our established Vendors had premade boxes made up available for sale. They worked really well for our Senior customers and those who are at high risk.

We had an asparagus and carnivorous plant vendor who only come a few times, but make lots of money.

I really like the questions you were thinking of asking when vendors leave the market and wonder if there are markets who survey their vendors when they leave. It would be interesting to see why they leave and what skills they felt they gained from the market if moving on to a different outlet.

@ Rachael we had an interview case study planned around these questions but COVID disrupted those plans, we are planning to wrap that into next project round!

Does market placement play a big factor into this data? how so? Do most market managers focus on placing new vendors in more visible/higher trafficked areas? or is the focus on placing core/consistent vendors in higher trafficked areas?

Generally new vendors will get the less valuable space because of seniority.

But a good display effort can overcome any placement.

@Kelly, got it. Are there markets here that already ask these questions of your vendors when they leave?

I feature new vendors in a high traffic area their first day and promote them on social media. The following weeks, they are moved to a different location.

Social media help that Amanda mentions is an important support.

We try to put new vendors by an older vendor to help encourage them. Also refer them to the Small Business Development Center for guidance.

Placement depends on Seniority, when application came in and if they have a prepaid season pass. We do talk up new vendors during live radio broadcast and on social media

I’ve heard from new vendors this year that no sampling was hard for their sales

With the caveat that our market is small and year round: we just put them in the spot we’re replacing for - so if the baker leaves, the new baker gets their spot. It seems to work well for shoppers and vendors. Shoppers find the thing they’re looking for where they’re looking for it, and some new vendors get to kind of ride on the coattails of their predecessors.

I have heard that some vendors that refused to wear masks won't be invited back until the pandemic is over, and even then...

@Ashley, That is such a smart and interesting customer-focused approach! Do you get any push-back from your “veteran” vendors?

Space will affect what we do. No space for new at Corvallis, and we’ll invite them to Albany.

Vendors who stopped out and got vaccinated are asking to return.

@Lisa, oh man, yes! Building a value added clientele at market w/o sampling must be sooo hard!

We are doing a beginning farmer fee that is half of our normal stall fee to try and give some extra support

@kelly: not really! They mostly like being in the same spot all the time, and being consistent about that.

@Lisa what a lovely idea!

Love the idea of a smaller fee for new vendors Lisa!

@ahshley, that’s a really smart strategy for a market who has enough vendor interest to ,maintain a really consistent product mix at market!

We had a few vendors who withdrew their applications due to the no sampling.

Promotion of those extras: music, cooking demos...

Recruit by really advertising the programing and music that would also come back

Have more promotions, music, kids activities

We have alienated a few parents, but getting PoP back will help.

I believe by being able to include the entertainment and all the fun stuff back in!!!

I think there's also some hope that once we've hooked the "casual" customers on local food the better taste and safety aspects will keep them coming back naturally

Yes, and the bored people.

@rachael, that’s such a good point! We DID gain some customers too!

In MN, we're focusing on keeping all the new COVID-19 customers - esp. the ones w/ online markets.

We really played up the safety factor of farm direct of our no touch market.

@kathy, haha! It wouldn’t be a farmers market call without at least one animal noise!

Kelly - thank you so much for letting us join your session. Learned a lot. Thanks from Minnesota!

To clarify, 30 farmers markets had online markets, but most of those continued to be open as physical markets.

We are moving forward for now and would LIKE to continue, but we are still struggling to get it to a level where we can justify.

We'll be ending our online market (Whatsgood app) soon due to low sales. They peaked in May 2020, and fell off steeply afterwards.

All our MN FMs with online platforms are operating at a loss; covered by grants :-/

I just encouraged everyone to join, only a couple did, but they are the younger vendors and that lifestyle to order online is a part of their lives. I think we need to continue providing the service because it does provide an opportunity for younger people to get involved.

Would be great to have some OFMA provided promotional nuggets (social media) to focus on retaining and building customer base for safe, local food... you found us during the pandemic... stick with us for freshest food... ?

We will not be using What's Good again. We only had a handful of vendors participate and had like one order a day.

thank you all for all this information!

Thank you!

Love that idea Vonda!

Fantastic webinar and really, really good data. Thank you OFMA!

Thank you!

Thanks everyone! Good stuff!!

@Vonda, yes what a great communications idea!

Thank you so much!

Thank you all!

Greatly informative! Thank you.

Thank you all for your hard work!!!!

Thank you!

Thanks everyone!!!

Thank you. This was great!

Great job, thanks!