sales First Farmers Market

HellfireFarm

HellfireFarm

eXtreme Business
Heading to my first farmers market in a couple weeks. I'm trying to get everything ready to go. No fresh product just yet but going with my dried peppers and possibly some starters.

I've got my Square account set up, opened my business banking, got the biz name registered and got set up for collecting sales tax. What am I forgetting?

Anyone ever sell at a farmers market? Any tips or suggestions?

I'm especially wondering about the starters - any advice on how to determine pricing for those?
 
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Turned out to be a pretty good day. The advice here totally made it - the samples were a hit! EVERYONE who bought had tried some first, and the all took at least one recipe card. I made sure they had my website on it & told them I would be adding new recipes. All the rest of the tips made everything work, so let me express my thanks yet again. It would have been a mess without your help!

One thing we didn't account for was wind. Also forgot plates for the chips. So my son made an emergency trip to Dollar General (about a block away) to pick those up - but that really was the only real difficulty we faced. Wind kept knocking down the price list, so I need to think of another option there. (And definitely going to go with the stretch cover.)

Had a great reception overall. I was a bit surprised, though - the habaneros were one of the best sellers, which I did not expect.

So, good start, and a really happy day for me - after 3 years, my first "credit" entry in my ledger!

Here's the setup

market.jpg


(I forgot about leaving space up front. Fortunately, it only mattered at all with one customer and he ended up being the biggest buyer of the day!)
 
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Nice looking booth and glad to hear you had a good day! And with only 2 little glitches, that seems like a great day.

For wind... you can get tablecloth weights that clip on the corners. For the acrylic price list frames, i actually used a couple of rocks, or my table wiping bleach cloth on the back lip of the frame. It is hidden from view. I think i actually kept the rocks in the market tote bin. Forgot to mention that....


Also regarding the wind, does your market require canopy weights?
 
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Oh... and the rain!!!! If you can pull your table back from the front edge of the canopy, customers can step in out of the rain. And also the sun when it ts really hot. That might be something you do on a day by day basis depending on the weather.

And speaking of the rain......watch out for the puddles that will build up on your canopy. Strategically push them up/drain safely so they dont randomly unload on your customers, yourself, or your neighbors.
 
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:lol: yup! Seen that many times at the markets.
Also saw many canopies take flight before markets started requiring weighrs.


The roof on our house dumps the snow right in front of our main door. When exiting the house and closing the door, the vibration is enough to make the snow on the roof drop......right on top of your head as you step away from the house. We very quickly learned to....slam the door....wait...(thump snow drop) ....wait......THEN step out onto the porch.
 
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Might be hard to see at that angle, but we did have some decent space under the canopy for customers. Table was just about in the middle, actually.

They don't require weights, but it's in a field & everyone had stakes. Almost everyone, that is. One vendor had theirs blow away while setting up, ended up just getting rid of it.

I had rocks on the back of the price list, and tape on the bottom. Still lost it a couple times. Had to go chasing bags of dry peppers around once, before we weighed those down too!
 
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Reviving this for an update.

Again, thank you for the great advice - it's working out quite well now! We have our pack-out down to everything on three shelves - grab and go. Setup and tear down less than 30 minutes each, including getting product out. The tips here were a great first step, it's only been refinement.

We're making a name. People who aren't into the heat are stopping by, asking questions, and saying they have a friend who likes spicy food - and then that friend actually stops by! A comment last weekend was "so you're the guy everyone is talking about" - so I guess we're getting buzz! Also, our banner is by far the most prominent at the market - one customer said they saw it from the street while driving by and had to stop to check it out!

We've taken the recipes to another level, using them as a talking point that "hot peppers don't have to be only about sauces and chili" - last week's "Great Caesar's Ghost" salad dressing was a huge hit. Our focus is now education - teaching people about hot peppers and how to use them. Customers are starting to make suggestions for other recipe ideas to try.

For only four weeks, I'd say that's pretty good!

Adjusting to demand: I had forgotten that mildly spicy is a big thing too, so I've added another "sampler" each week, something made from Anaheims or Serranos, so not quite as fiery.

It's also looking like I may need to go into the confectioner's business: the Dragon Glass and Dragon Eggs are massive hits - and people are taking the recipe, but they just want to buy them! They're ASKING us to start making them!

Not quite a hot pepper tycoon yet, but it's been a pretty good start - thank you again for the help and support!
 
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Great feedback!

Wondering if a "feature pepper and recipe this week" or month or.....would be a good marketing thing.

Try not to get sucked into having to have extended conversations with every customer for every sale. Having to explain every recipe to every customer will suck up a lot of market face time.
 
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salsalady said:
Great feedback!

Wondering if a "feature pepper and recipe this week" or month or.....would be a good marketing thing.

Try not to get sucked into having to have extended conversations with every customer for every sale. Having to explain every recipe to every customer will suck up a lot of market face time.
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I think that would be a cool idea.. Talk about the pepper, heat level, flavor, where it comes from, recipes - traditional and modern, and have a sauce featuring the pepper itself. Or not even do a new sauce, just the ones you already have.

Education for a customer is a great way to tier your value "tree". You could even just cycle the same four peppers, one each week, and go a long way. As the saying goes, "saying something once isn't saying anything at all." Repeat, repeat, repeat.
 
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The level of conversation varies significantly - some people are already familiar, others have a lot of questions. But most of the time, it's not one-on-one. It may start that way but it seems to end up with a few people listening in, and maybe asking their own questions.

I'm planning to move into retail stores at some point. Doing more than this one farmers market is just going to be too much, and I'll never reach my sales goals with only this location. Given that, I think I've decided that the market is the "marketing and education" presence - where I interact directly with the public and build brand awareness (which I'm already getting, wow). Then when people see the product in stores they'll already have a level of trust built up - and that will help if word gets around and people who haven't been to the market see the product.
 
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I had well established salsa sales at the local farmers market. Only market sales for 2 summers

Customers kept asking ...where can I get it in the winter.....

So I went there and got the salsa in the stores.

Next summer.....
Lots of people sampling the salsa at the market but not buying.
Comments..."This is the BEST salsa!!! I just bought some at Hanks! "

Sales at Hanks good.
Sales at market...shite.
 
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salsalady said:
I had well established salsa sales at the local farmers market. Only market sales for 2 summers

Customers kept asking ...where can I get it in the winter.....

So I went there and got the salsa in the stores.

Next summer.....
Lots of people sampling the salsa at the market but not buying.
Comments..."This is the BEST salsa!!! I just bought some at Hanks! "

Sales at Hanks good.
Sales at market...shite.
Click to expand...
I think I remember you sharing something similar in another thread.

I'm aware of that risk, but I'm never going to get anywhere CLOSE to my sales goals at this farmer's market, or just about any other market in the area. The only one where I would even stand a chance at that is far bigger, and much more of a commitment and investment, than I have any interest in making. After all, I still have a full time job.

I'm setting my expectations: market is for customer interaction and education, and maybe introducing new products. Stores are for sales. I guess we'll see how that ends up working out.
 
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HellfireFarm said:
I think I remember you sharing something similar in another thread.

I'm aware of that risk, but I'm never going to get anywhere CLOSE to my sales goals at this farmer's market, or just about any other market in the area. The only one where I would even stand a chance at that is far bigger, and much more of a commitment and investment, than I have any interest in making. After all, I still have a full time job.

I'm setting my expectations: market is for customer interaction and education, and maybe introducing new products. Stores are for sales. I guess we'll see how that ends up working out.
Click to expand...
Just wanted to second your sentiment on the conversations and interests people have when they see a hot pepper tent at a market. Last year was our first year doing markets in and around Columbus OH and the joke we made was that if we had a nickel for every pepper story we would be rich. It was awesome just laughing over the many many pepper stories folks have and obviously sharing the all too well known self sabotages we ve all made. They may not purchase anything but the engagement has imprinting ability and word of mouth travels fast. If they personally don't enjoy hot peppers they definitely have a loved one who does.
 
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I have to confess, i was going to markets back in the Jurassic era...when very few knew what a hananero was, jalapenos were the hottest at the grocer, Red Savinas were guiness book record holder.....

I should really stop talking now.......


Point being....market attendees now are are waaaaayyyy more educated with the current chile culture than back in the day.......
 
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It's been crazy busy lately with planting out, some personal business tying me up, and getting some things ready for a big upcoming market. Memorial Day weekend, going Saturday only - they're expecting 60,000 visitors over the weekend so that will be interesting...

Updated the display a bit:

20220416_081907.jpg


Replaced the bins with the pegboards. I think it looks a lot neater.

The candies have been such a hit that everyone is asking us to SELL them. (Mentioned previously)
Well, we finally got the commercial kitchen lined up, so we're starting making them this week. Also going to do flakes and powders, to add to the variety. Trying to get a good bit of stock prepared for that big event in a couple weeks!
 
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