April 2019 - 27

FARM MARKET & AGRITOURISM
More basics of building an on-farm market
By Brian Moyer
VGN Columnist
Last month we looked at some things
to consider before building your onfarm
market or roadside stand. This
time, we'll assume you've done your
SWOT (Strengths,
Weaknesses,
Opportunities,
Threats) analysis
and looked at the
zoning and various
regulations and are
moving forward
with your market.
If we build it,
BRIAN MOYER will they come?
This could be an expensive risk. We need
to be able to make our best-informed
guess on the market potential. Depending
on where your market will be located,
you should check with your municipality
or state Department of Transportation to
see if they have traffic counts on the road
where the market will be located. Look
at the population figures for a 5-mile and
10-mile radius of the market. We also
need to know what the potential average
gross revenue will be.
The University of Georgia Center for
Agribusiness and Economic Development
has a guide titled " Road Side Stand
Marketing of Fruits and Vegetables " that
has some useful information on market
potential. Looking at existing directDetermining
local customer traffic potential is an important part of developing an onfarm
market. Photo: Brian Moyer
to-consumer research suggests that a
majority of consumers drive less than 15to-20
miles to purchase produce, which
means we'll have to rely on the local
market for success.
The guide has an example of estimated
traffic for a market on was on a highway
that saw 39,470 vehicles per day. If only
2 percent of those vehicles stopped at the
market, that would be 789 cars. If each
vehicle had and average expenditure of
$10 that would be $7,890 in sales for the
day. Now we start to get a picture of the
market potential.
Store layout is critical. Will there be a
prep area for produce? Where will the
refrigeration and cold storage be? Where
will customers check out? Ultimately,
we want to create a great customer
experience so they will return again
and again. To do that, we need to think
about how our customers will move
through the market. It's a good idea to
place staple or popular items in strategic
places that require the customer to walk
past less popular items first in hopes they
make an impulse purchase. Open plan
buildings allow for a flexible floor space
that can easily allow for changes in the
market layout.
Give plenty of consideration to your
displays. Where will they be and what will
they look like? We want to create various
heights and lighting that will show off our
products. Look at the produce section
at some newer grocery stores. Chances
are, the shelves are black, and lit with
LED lights. This makes the color of the
produce really stand out. Don't forget
cross merchandising to increase impulse
purchases. Place apple slicers with the
apples. Chances are items like that have
a higher profit margin then the produce
and will increase our gross sales.
What about the checkout? I recently
spoke with a market owner who moved
their check out from the middle of the
floor and put it along a wall close to the
exit. This freed up valuable floor space
and they speed up the customer checkout.
How? Traditionally we see multiple
registers with multiple lines of customers.
Customers try figure out which line is
the smallest and run to that one. In this
case, customers get into one line and there
are multiple registers. Customers simply
move to the next open register. This
speeds up the checkout line.
We want our customers to linger as
long as possible in our markets but when
they want to check out, they want to do it
quickly. VGN
Need Clamshells?
ProducePackaging.com®
Kurt Zuhlke & Associates, Inc.
FOR ALL YOUR
PRODUCE PACKAGING NEEDS
VegetablegrowersNews.com
VGN | APRIL 2019 | 27
http://www.ProducePackaging.com http://www.VegetablegrowersNews.com
April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2019
