Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Uptown Westerville Farmers' Market: Open for Business at 3 p.m.

The Uptown Westerville Farmers' Market hours are 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. each Wednesday from May to October.

The market has few rules, but the big one: We don't allow early sales, so 3 p.m. is the absolute open-for-business time.

So, you may be thinking, "Geez louise, Uptown Westerville Farmers' Market management team, why so tough?" We say, "Good question!"


We want the market to be easy-going and fun for our patrons and our vendors!

Market vendors arrive early to set up and prep for the market. And, some market vendors are leaving their farms with fresh-picked produce and driving a good 2-hours to get to Uptown Westerville. Some are still pulling fresh baked goods out of the oven right before they head out! So, we give our market vendors an hour to arrive (still gotta deal with traffic, and surprises -- last week we had a vendor lose a trailer wheel on the way to market!) and set up. We also have safety concerns, including vehicles passing in and out of the market space during set up. (Once market opens, the area is vehicle free.) Some market vendors are ready to go before others, but... we want to be fair to our customers and fair to our vendors, so we open market when all vendors are ready to go.

So, the market opens at 3 p.m. so everyone starts on a level playing field -- each market vendor is open for business and ready to serve you and you can walk from vendor-to-vendor ready to visit, taste, shop, buy and... enjoy!

And... market vendors start to close up and load out at 6 p.m. (we did test extended hours per customer requests and found minimal customer response -- bottom-line: we are seeing our customers before 6 p.m.) most vendors will be happy to serve you while they load out. It's up to each vendor, but if you are running late, just stop and ask!

Market insider tip: Want to know more about the market behind-the-scenes, including our standards? Check out the Uptown Westerville Farmers' Market web page and read our market vendor rules and regulations.

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