February 2024 - 16

MARKETING
considerations
for starting a
Before long, customers began to notice.
" People would start coming in and say, 'I'd like
Winter Market
* Make sure you have a market for it in your area. " Lots
of people think, if you grow it, they will come, which
isn't necessarily true, " said Vic Vanik, former co-owner
of Four Seasons Greenhouse and Nursery.
* Be aware of how much labor is involved. There's a lot
of labor involved in spacing, growing and harvesting the
food, he said. " It's cheap on the cost-of-goods side, but it's
higher on the labor side. "
* Start small. " I had one garden center that I talked to
about growing some tomatoes. Their first crop was
800 tomatoes - that's just huge for somebody just
jumping in for the first time. Start out small and feel
your way along the way. "
* Be willing to experiment. Vanik said they started growing
herbs and selling them at the market. " You put herbs out
and people buy them in the wintertime. "
to buy some of that.' And we'd have to say, 'No,
we're eating that for Christmas,' or 'I'm using that
for my diet.' So I put two and two together and
thought, 'Let's start trying to experiment with
growing some lettuce and selling some off here
and there.'
" Over time, I added lots of things. I started
to wonder if I could grow some broccoli in a
particular greenhouse where I didn't need to have
much heat. And then somebody asked us to grow
kale. ... It started growing; people started asking
for more. "
At that time, Vic discovered that there were
no winter farmers markets anywhere around
their area of southwest Colorado.
A Market Is Born
Vic said it was in 2012 that he and Gail had
the idea to gather vendors from a few summer
farmers markets in the fall months. Since most
markets in the area closed by the end of October,
they decided to open theirs on the first of
November.
" We started talking to people and canvassing
some of the other farmers markets and looking
at what they were growing and what quality they
had and if they would fit what we did. We started
small - I think we started out with about eight or
10 different vendors, plus us. "
He said it took a couple years before the market
The winter farmers market at Four Seasons was as much
a shopping destination as a social event.
took off, with people coming in not only to shop,
but also to socialize.
" Lots of people who ordinarily wouldn't get to
see people for months at a time came in. It became
a social event. ... People would sit down wherever
they could find a seat, we'd have live music - it
ended up being lots of fun.
" We had 110 parking places out in our parking
lot, and we'd be completely mobbed every
Saturday - whether rain or snow, sun or shine. "
Making Some Green on Greens
One surprise for Vic was the amount of money
people would pay for their produce.
" We were always pushing the upper envelope
of what we could get for food - and we did it
successfully. It was good quality and people were
really behind it. Within reason, I was surprised
at how much we could sell at the prices we
could sell.
" I sold tomatoes all winter long for $8 per
pound, " he said. " There would definitely be people
that would walk into the farmers market and say,
'I'm not paying $8 per pound for tomatoes -
that's ridiculous.' And people behind them would
16 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | FEBRUARY 2024
February 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2024
