Build a Better Farmers' Market Display

Clearly labeled turnips for sale at the Auburn Farmers Market.

A simple internet image search for “farmers' market display” yields a feast for the eyes: stacks of colorful veggies, creative and engaging signs, baskets, bins, crates, canopies, and more. A great project to add to the winter list is a market stall makeover! Get online for some inspiration. If you're not in the mood to create your own displays, head over to your local craft or hardware store to pick up a few items to give your market booth a new look.

Your market stall is not just a place to lay out the various farm products that you have for sale. It is an opportunity to merchandise your beautiful fruits and vegetables. Merchandising is the activity of promoting the sale of goods, particularly through their display at retail outlets. Every time you set up your booth at the farmers' market, you are merchandising!

Merchandising is serious stuff in the world of global fresh produce sales. While it is not practical to utilize many of the merchandising techniques used by the grocery store industry at the farmers' markets, there are certainly many ideas that can help us to display our farm products in a way that entices our customers.

Here are a few tips on creating an irresistible display at the farmers' market.

Tip # 1: Signage

Make sure that your labels are spelled correctly, easy to read and clean. The name and variety of the item as well as the price should be easily read from 3-5 feet away. Mount your labels so that they are up off of the table and facing customers as they pass by.

Not only should labels be easy to read, information about the farm and farmers should also be prominently displayed. Farmers' market shoppers are at the market to connect to their local farmers. Be sure to display photos of the farm and any other information that a shopper can use to feel that connection. How about a large map with an arrow pointing to the location of the farm? Maybe create a banner that states the mission of your farm business. Be creative and think of the farmers' market as an opportunity to share your unique farm story.

A display at a Portland Oregon farmers' market gives a sense of abundance.

Tip #2: Bounty Sells

Be sure to display your fruits and vegetables in a way that suggests the bounty of the farm. Use baskets, barrels, and crates to hold produce, not just piles on the table. Use clean fabric to fill the bottom two-thirds of a basket and then pile produce above that. You will achieve the look of an overflowing basket without causing damage to your products by piling them on top of one another. Use baskets tipped over on their side with produce spilling out onto the table to give an impression of abundance. Bring a set of clean produce boxes to stack together creating a two tiered display table. Also be sure to get your produce up off the ground. Shoppers tend to look at items placed at waist height or higher.

Tip #3: Cleanliness

Make sure your tablecloths, coolers, boxes, baskets, crates, shade tent, scales, signs and hands are cleaned regularly! No one wants to buy their food off of a dirty table! And just because you are wearing gloves does not mean that your hands are clean! A regularly cleaned market display will also last longer giving more value to the farm business. Think about how you store your market display in your van or truck. Can things be put into sealed, plastic bins to keep them clean while loaded in and out of the market vehicle? A set up that helps keep items clean may also help farmers and their employees stay organized!

Tip #4: Use Color

Try to arrange your produce so that the colors of each item help them stand out on the display. Instead of green lettuce next to green kale next to green parsley try interspersing a different color between each green item. Put the red lettuce between the dino kale and the Red Russian kale and the beets between the parsley and dandelion greens. It may seem logical to have all of your lettuce in one section and all of your kale in another but spreading items throughout your stand may help each to stand out to the customer. We want to get people's creative culinary juices flowing at the farmers' market. Can you think of ways to group together items that are often cooked together?

Tip #5: RECIPES!

Recipes really can increase sales! Sometimes a recipe or simple suggestion for use is all that a person needs to encourage them to buy an item. This is particularly important for less common varieties of fruits and vegetables that may be new to market shoppers. Make large format recipes that farmers' market shoppers can snap a quick photo of or simple slips of paper that customers can take with their purchases.

Additional Resources:

The Art and Science of Farmers' Market Displays. 2009. Peabody, Mary. University of Vermont Extension.

http://www.uvm.edu/newfarmer/marketing/marketing_resources/FarmersMarketDisplay.pdf

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