by Bailey White
Staff Writer
This morning, like almost every Friday morning for the past year, Dale Collins will arrive at Hogan Street with baskets of strawberries, pears and thick-skinned scuppernong grapes. He’ll set up tables of corn, broccoli and cucumbers and, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., will sell his fruits and vegetables at the Downtown Farmers Market.
Some of his customers will be new, but many will be the regulars who come to buy his produce every week.
“I bring things down here that they want,” said Collins, who, with wife Marjie, owns D & M Produce.
Collins is also a vendor at the farmers market on Beaver Street, but he said there is something special about the downtown experience that keeps him coming back.
“I like being downtown,” he said. “I do it as a service, but it’s also good for me.”
Since it opened in April 2002, the farmers market, which is operated by Downtown Vision, Inc., has hosted a variety of vendors. These days the regulars offer a variety of goods.
In addition to produce, there are cut flowers, cakes sold by the slice and whole, potted plants, baked goods and, with the newest vendor, specialty orchids.
“Most of the vendors have been coming here for over a year,” said Amy Crockett, who handles communications for DVI. “I think that testifies to how well we’re doing.”
Now that the market has been steadily operating for over a year, DVI will be examining the current set-up and the next steps — if any — to take.
“We’re planning on continuing the market as it is now through the end of November,” said Crockett. “After that we’re closing for the winter since we found last year that people don’t come out as much during the colder months. We’ll be figuring out over that period exactly what we’d like to do with it. We’ll be talking about a lot of things — the possibility of expanding it, how we’d like it to be managed.”
One other issue that will be addressed is parking. The current location across from Hemming Plaza doesn’t leave much room for vendors to park and unload their merchandise from their trucks.
“The biggest problem is just providing enough parking and unloading zones,” said Crockett. “The parking division has been very helpful, but we’ll see if there is another solution.”
While parking isn’t much of a problem for customers — plenty of people walk from their downtown offices — it can be tricky for merchants who bring their goods in the backs of vehicles they don’t have easy access to.
“My only problem is when I have to run back to my truck to get something out of it,” said Collins.
But, according to many of the participating merchants, business has been good enough that they’d be willing to open booths at other downtown locations if the market does expand.
“I would be very interested in the market’s expansion,” said Maria Ferra, the owner of Maria’s Bakery and a long-time vendor. Ferra offers several types of bread, rolls, muffins, feta cheese pies, apple strudel and calzones at her booth. “I’ve had good business and regular customers.”
Like Ferra, Debra Cordi, who, along with Dana McIntyre, offers potted plants and flowers at the market, said being able to interact with regular customers has been a plus.
“We’re in our sixth week now, and the response has been great,” she said. “People have made sure that we’re coming back and have requested special things. We pay attention to the chatter so we can make sure we have what our customers want.”
“Many of the vendors have said they really like to be able to build relationships with their customers,” said Crockett. “They see the same faces every week and can tailor what they offer to those people.”
Some, like Alvin Smalls, who sells homemade cakes and pies, even take orders.
“They’re doing great things with downtown,” said Cordi. “We’ve really enjoyed being a part of this. It’s a neat atmosphere.”