VisAd: research responses

How would you rate the general attendance of the farmer’s market?

I think the attendance has improved from the beginning of our market to where it has better matched the balance with the number of vendors.  Now as our vendors are reducing due to reduced amount of produce we see a decreasing number of customers.

Why do you think attendance is lower than it potentially could be?

Initially I think it was due to advertising and knowledge that the market even existed.  Located on the edge of Rosedale, it is difficult to stumble across the market on a sunday afternoon.  In Kansas City the most effective advertisement seems to be word of mouth.  As that spread we slowly increased our attendance.  

Does the farmer’s market have any existing symbols that people would recognize upon seeing?

The market does have a symbol connected with the Greens and Beans program.  I'll try to remember to attach it to the email.  Actually, check out this link for the image we use.  http://rosedalefarmersmarket.com/ 

Does the farmer’s market accept the snap card?

We do accept the SNAP card.  In fact the purpose of the market is to make healthy foods available to the inner city communities.  To do this we were able to partner with the Menorah Foundation to use their Greens and Beans program money to make SNAP cards double value. A person swipes their SNAP card at the information booth for whatever amount they choose, then they get twice that amount in wooden tokens that can be spent as cash at the vendors.  The Market manager then reimburses the vendors for the full amount of the tokens they collected. 

Average number of people that visit the market on a weekly basis? Monthly?

I believe our average numbers weekly are just short of 200.  During the peak we were higher than that, and during the later dates more around 150.  Not sure what our monthly numbers are.

 

Is email the only means for communication between the farmer’s market and the community? If no, how else do you communicate?

Email is the most common route of communication.  Each week after the market the Market Manager sends out a summary email.  However a lot of communication happens during the market face to face.  It helps to check in with the vendors, see how things are going and work out any issues that may have crept up.  There is also a friday afternoon email blast that goes out to interested people with updates as to what to expect at the market.  Often the information is gathered through phone calls to the vendors to see what they will have for the upcoming market day.

Do you know if the average visitor is a local? a renter? an outsider? or a parent?

I dont' know the demographics of the average visitor.  Our target audience is the residents of Rosedale and generally the low income people.  I am not sure if that is who we hit or if we are mainly hitting the post church crowd and those that drive in for church in the area.

 

Do many kids (aged around 5-10) come to the market? Are the kids that do come excited to be there?

The number of kids seems to be low.  Even though there are the family activities I am not sure how much they get used.  My guess is the number is around less than 10 kids in the 3 hrs.  Kids that I see tend to be excited to be there, often running around saying hi to the animals.  There is much more of a community feel at this market and as the kids get to know the vendors they will often walk around saying hi to them also. 

Who do you suggest we contact that would be able to offer further insight?

For some of the statistics, like numbers of kids, customers during the week/month I would suggest talking with Heidi Holiday.  She has many of those numbers recorded.  The other person would be the Market Manager Joe Heidi.  If you need his email address feel free to ask, I'm guessing you already have it. 

Do costs of products fluctuate at all? If so, why?

Prices with fluctuate even during the same day at the same vendor.  The reason is that the vendors would prefer to sell their produce instead of taking it home, and reducing the cost helps that happen.  It then becomes an issue of supply and demand, tomatoes early are worth more than tomatoes in the high of production.  There is also a learning curve for some that are not familiar with what an acceptable price is.  Things are constantly balance to meet production costs and keep good level of sales.

Hope all of this helped!

Dr. Alliman