Thursday, March 11, 2004
Fair Trade at the Farmers' Markets
I am now selling at three local farmers' markets, in Costa Mesa (Thurs), Laguna Hills (Fri) & in Irvine (Sat). I also have a few regular customers & I'm always working on winning new converts to the movement.
I'm willing to help any one, or any group of people who are interested in selling at their local farmers' markets. It cost me about $550 to buy the canopy, table, permits, etc. which isn't really a huge investment, especially if several people are involved. I would be happy to share all of the info I have regarding suppliers, etc. so that would save a considerable amount of time in research. In all honesty, it hasn't been an onerous task getting started at all, & for people who are interested, having a 'mentor' may be all the additional incentive they need to get started. You wouldn't be able to pay your mortgage with the earnings, but I am making a small amount of money (I'm trying to keep prices at the lower end, in order to make it more affordable for more people). I've also started to contact local religious goups to see if they're interested in converting to Fair Trade, but I haven't had any responses yet. ---Sarita
November 15, 2003
I did my first farmers' market yesterday, & I sold a staggering.....are you ready for it?....one single bar of chocolate! It could have been worse, I suppose, I could have sold nothing. Very importantly, I did give out some info about Fair Trade, & I talked to others about the philosophy behind Fair Trade. The way the Farmers markets are run here is that vendors give 7.5 % of their sales + $0.60 at the end, to pay for their space, so these are really ideal conditions.
