Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Musings from the Junque Pile

There's an new indoor / outdoor farmer's market that recently opened a few blocks from my house. They've been advertising on Face Book, and since I'm all over that subject matter, I was anxious to see how it was going. We arrived on Saturday, and I would be lying if I didn't say that I was disappointed. There were only 2 vendors there, one of which was the owner's / directors.

They have a good sized building, and the space for close to 100 vendors. I understand that most farmer's and other vendor types who want to sell are probably already booked at other farmer's markets for the summer. My happiness in this new place is that it wants to be a year round market, and I am sure that the other local sellers will want to come here when the weather turns colder, and the usual outdoor shut down at the end of the season. I certainly plan on shopping there in the fall and winter. I want this place to succeed.

Which led me to wonder what could I do to help them along? I don't have a voice in the community. I don't particularly want one. I do, however, want to develop an extra income source, something that might get me out of an office every day, eventually. I'm wondering if I should attempt to sell at farmer's markets? I could start off with dried herbs - I have plenty of that. According the local laws, I can sell any canned food product that is highly acidic such as pickles and jams, without having to have a commercial grade kitchen. I could do that. I wonder if they would let me sell some of the beads and jewelry I used to make (and want to get back into in a big bad way)?

Definitely some food for thought, as it were. Do I want to pay the table fee? Get a vendor's license? Figure out if I need to charge sales tax? It would mean setting up a growing area in the basement with grow lights, etc.

Do I have the desire? Heck yes.

Do I have the stamina? Umm...maybe.

I kinda want to.

What do you think? Give me pros and cons, please.

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