Photo from Oct 08Takings have been falling recently and with the additional competition on the market it has become less viable for us and looking at the trends of our takings this fall in income looks likes set to continue.
We will miss the traders, customers and organisers, all have been generous and friendly. We wish them all the best and hope that the market will be successful in the future.
6 comments:
Sad to hear this. I would have expected the current high interest in things organic and local would have meant that farmers markets were growing in the quantity that was sold there. Is it just that the supply is growing even faster, or do you think it's because customers are feeling the pinch and feel compelled towards cheaper and inferior goods at the supermarkets?
I was discussing this point with my neighbouring stall holder on Saturday. It is not only organic producers finding it difficult at Farmers Markets as most of the stallholders are conventional, from anecdotal information most stalls on most farmers markets in the west midlands UK have suffered a drop in takings.
It could be the resection or the fact that most Farmers Markets are once a month rather than weekly so if you miss one market it would be 8 weeks between markets and you could get out of the habit by then. This wasn't a problem when Farmers Markets were flavour of the month as more customers were always coming along. But at some stage they need to move from being a once a month treat to being a regular weekly supplier of choice.
But the cheap food argument is always what the press bang on about whenever the subject is raised, even though we are spending less on food now than we ever have as a proportion of income.
Very sorry to hear this, I have enjoyed buying from you at Moseley and for my money your selection has been better and better-priced than other stalls.
I agree that once a month isn't really enough to build regular custom. I go to both Moseley and Kings Norton markets in Birmingham and to some extent build my Saturdays around them in the weeks that they're on, but I suspect I'm unusual.
Hi Jack
Thanks for the kind words.
The other problem with is that being a community organisation run by volunteers you have a limited resource for organising more markets, which I am sure becomes more limited as time goes by. The community base was and still is a significant strength of the market. But making the next step to regular suppliers is difficult with limited numbers of volunteer help.
Sorry to hear this. We run the Prince of Wales in Moseley and we look forward to shopping at the market.
One idea we had was to run a weekly version of the Farmer's Market at the Prince - we have a very large back garden and could probably manage about 20 stalls. Do you think it would be interesting to traders if we did this on the 3 weeks that the existing market did't operate? We realise some traders would have other commitments, plus it would take time to build, but if rents were free and enough traders were interested, perhaps its an idea worth talking about?
Let me know your views. My email is keith.marsden@hotmail.com.
Regards and best of luck.
Keith
Hi Keith
Ther would be a number of issues that need to be addressed, first Birmingham City council will have a charter controlling all the markets in the area so you may need permission from them. If you were to do this I suggest you get the advice of the Moseley Forum who run the market, you would need to invite the traders individually there may be a problem with availability. Then you would need good publicity, getting the message out can be difficult witness the number of people who forget the market is on the fourth Saturday and turn up on the last Saturday in a five week month.
Well organised it could be successful but publicity is key.
Good luck Phil
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