Market Reminder!

I’m often asked by new and potential members why we have a membership fee, and where that money goes. As a nonprofit organization, we strive to be upfront about what we charge and why. Our fee structure is explained in brief on our Welcome page and Q’s and A’s page of The Market, but we’re always happy to provide more information.

Essentially, the membership fee is what allows us to function differently than a traditional farmers’ market and provide our members with additional benefits. You can browse and order ahead of time from the convenience of your home or office, even research growers or products and ask us questions during the week. You can sleep in on Saturdays knowing that you won’t miss out on the best fruits and veggies. You can pick up your order while enjoying the comfort of air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter and stay dry in rainy weather. You can set up your orders to be automatically charged to a credit or debit card. If Saturday’s don’t work for you or your plans go awry, we also offer a Monday evening pick up. We generally have 20-30 growers and artisans with active listings at any given time, even in the middle of winter, and are able to offer products from wholesale vendors who don’t participate in open air markets.

In order to provide you with all of these benefits, we incur more overhead than a conventional farmers’ market. We pay the locallygrown website 3.25% of total sales. We pay rent for our office and kitchen space. We pay for the purchase and maintenance of our appliances and Health Department licensure of our space and practices. We also pay for supplies (paper, printer cartridges, etc.), staff and administration, and snacks and coffee for our volunteers.

We feel that all we do is well worth the membership fee, but we also understand that $60 can be a lot to pay all at once. The website automatically charges the full amount every time membership is due, but we’re happy to let our members pay in increments as small as $5 monthly. Just let us know in your order comments or when checking out and we’ll make the adjustment to your total. We also offer members who volunteer to help out at pick up a $5 credit which can be applied to membership. If you have a few hours to spare one Saturday morning each month, you can enjoy all the conveniences we provide for free!

So start making the most of your membership by ordering each and every week before The Market closes on Wednesday morning at 7:30.

-Rebecca Wild
Program Manager

Do you have questions or comments about this, or any, weblog? Thoughts on local food, goods, or events? Reply to this email and let us know what’s on your mind. Your feedback is always greatly appreciated!