Toronto has a bunch of Farmers’ markets, and at the one I go to there are a lot of actual farmers, but some are pretty open that they bring in additional produce from pretty much the same place the grocery stores get it. I haven’t asked the others, but I suspect that there are a few tables with nothing on them that came from soil the people behind them actually own.
And it makes sense, when you think about it; these things run year round, and while some use hydroponics and greenhouses, there are some crops that you simply shouldn’t be seeing in February, yet there they are, week after week. Or maybe I’m wrong and they’re all home grown, but let’s assume for a moment that some stalls at some markets are simply mini-grocery stores. Here’s the thing:
There aren’t any bananas.
It’d be cool if there were, because we buy bananas pretty much every time we go to the grocer, but the fact is they simply can’t sell bananas at the farmers’ market.
It would break the illusion of local.
Every retailer has options that might add revenue channels with minimal work. The infrastructure’s already in place. But these options often just aren’t possible without sacrificing the positioning and branding that’s been built, along with any price premiums and customer loyalty that have come about as a result.
Wal-Mart can sell whatever they want, but people go there for the lowest price and they’ll readily take an extra bus to go somewhere that’s cheaper.
At the farmers’ market, you can’t sell an $8 basket of heirloom tomatoes next to a bunch of commodity, clearly imported goods like bananas.
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