Chapter 18
Case Study: The Tale of Three Markets
Recent years have witnessed apparently quite profound reversals in consumer perceptions of ‘good food’. Perhaps stimulated by recurrent food scares and crises, consumers appear to be increasingly interested in the provenance of the food they consume. The cause of their interest is wrapped up in a range of mantels including: supporting the farmer, healthy eating, a semantic representation of traditions, ecological issues associated with food miles and carbon foot prints. An increase in the UK sales of local food has been particularly notable since the 2001 outbreak in foot and mouth disease. Claim that local food was the ‘new organic’ has stimulated consumer interest and local food is now available from a wide range of retail outlets, including multiple retailers, box schemes and of course farmers’ markets. As indicated in Chapter 1, the interest in local food has had the effect of increasing the number of farmer’s markets from 1 in 1997 to over 450 by 2003.
Seen to be a means of re-connecting consumers with producers (Policy Commission, 2002), farmers’ markets have the potential to challenge conventional: production, retail and consumption patterns (Holloway and Kneafsey, 2000). They represent, for some, a significant initiative in the development of an alternative rural economy (Marsden et al., 2000).
Whilst earlier chapters indicate that the number of farmers’ markets is now remaining fairly constant and growth of this form of retail has plateaued at around 500, such figures hide the dynamics of this format and the numbers of exits and entrants. Whilst there are a number of studies that claim positive impacts, both in terms of income to farmers and in terms of externalities (NFU, 2002; NEF, 2005), there are limited evaluations of the factors which affect their success or failure. This chapter presents three case studies and then draws upon more extensive research to highlight factors which appear to contribute to the success/failure of farmers’ markets within specific geographical locations.
Exhibit 18.1 Marylebone Market
Marylebone Market is situated off Cramers street, between Marylebone High Street and Baker Street in Central London. It opened on Sunday 22nd June 2003, and is surrounded by many individual shops, cafes and restaurants. The market is one of a number run by the London Farmers’ Markets (LFA), a member of FARMA.
LFA operate as a small company which was developed to provide Londoners with fresh local food, and better returns to farmers. They manage every aspect of the markets from their conception to the daily running. They allow no ‘middlemen’ at the markets, and have very strict rules about stallholder’s attendance.
They run fourteen markets, which include Blackheath, Ealing, Islington, Notting Hill and Wimbledon Park. LFA estimates that they bring £3 million pounds back to the rural economy each year. They see that they have an important role in promoting the development of links between farmers and restaurants and other food outlets in London. Unlike some markets they insist that all traders should grow, process or bake all the products they sell. There are strict guidelines for each category of product according to permissible criteria.
The Marylebone Market is held every Sunday between 10.00 a.m. and 2 p.m., and is the largest London farmers’ market. Customers generally live locally and walk to the market, 36 per cent live within 1 mile of the market, and 79 per cent live within 3 miles. There are in the region of 45 traders as registered stallholders which means that there are around 35 stallholders who are present in each market. The market attracts between 2,000 and 3,500 visitors each Sunday, weather permitting, and traders generate anywhere from £450 to over £1,000 of income on comparable Sundays. Average takings are around £716 per stallholder. All producers must come from within 100 miles of the M25, a more liberal concept of ‘local’ than found within other areas of the UK. The market annually draws around £1.3 million for traders with a further additional spend at local retailers of £295,000. The market is well marketed with web links to the London Farmers’ Markets site.
The Best Western consortium promotes the market to visitors to London, with details of 47 Best Western Hotels being identified as being near to the Marylebone Market.
Customer Base
Customers are predominantly drawn from the city of West London which has a population of over 181,286. Average gross incomes within this area are around £41,048, which is within the highest four income levels within the London local authorities. The customer base largely reflects the demographics of the area which is predominantly white middle-class and these make up 96 per cent of the customer base.
Customers in recent surveys appear to be particularly attracted to the atmosphere of the market, spending would appear to reflect this. Customers spend around £10 to £24 in the surrounding cafes and shops per visit. Levels of spends are similar to those found in Ealing Farmers’ Market, an area where average incomes are significantly lower than the Marylebone district. Suggestions are that Marylebone customers see the market more as a vehicle of leisure than a source of the next week’s meals (Extracted from research undertaken by NEF, 2005).
Exhibit 18.2 Bakewell Farmers’ Market
Bakewell Farmers’ Market is held at Bakewell’s Agricultural Business Centre. Bakewell is one of the major market towns in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire, Northern England. Opened in July 2000, pre foot and mouth disease, it survived this ordeal to become a highly successful market. In the Peak District, there are approximately 2,000 farms which are predominantly small-holdings, farming dairy, sheep and beef on a total area of approximately 77,500 hectares. Whilst there are 38,000 inhabitants, many of these commute to work in the larger industrial towns that surround the area. There are however over 17 million people who live and work within 60 miles of the Park District and the Park attracts over 30 million visitors to the area each year. Many of these are day visitors from the surrounding urban areas.
The market is run strictly according to FARMA rules, producers predominantly are based within a 30-mile radius from the market although there are a number of exceptions to the rule. The shortage of cheese producers and limited numbers of wine producers within the 30-mile radius mean that producers are drawn from as far away as Stoke on Trent. Initial funding for the market came from the Peak District National Park and the LEADER II scheme. The farmers’ market is managed by the market co-ordinator who is specifically employed by Derbyshire Dales county council to organize, and develop the market, in close co-ordination with the Peak District National Park. The market is effectively promoted through its own web site, which links to other events within the area.
Held every last Saturday in the month, the market has around 43 to 50 stallholders who are registered to trade at the market, with a long waiting list. The management of the market involves a careful balance of product types in order to offer maximum choice and interest to the consumers. Turnover per stallholder ranges from £60 to £2,400 per market, with some traders attaining 100 per cent of their income from this and other farmers’ markets in the area. The average turnover per week for the market as a whole amounts to £67,500 – approximately £810,000 per year.
Traders have a choice of farmers’ markets and word spreads between traders as to which markets are the most lucrative. There are many as 42 farmers’ markets held within the month, all drawing draw upon the high concentration of population found within the area. These, depending on the stringency of application of FARMA rules in each market, are easily accessible by traders. One trader with three family members is present at nine markets per week.
The market has offered traders tremendous opportunities for expansion, often through collaborative activities between farmers. Initially instigated by a surfeit of traders for the market, the Bakewell Farmers’ Market shop has now been established in the centre of Bakewell offering a permanent point of sale for traders and non-traders at the market. Farmers have also been encouraged to sell to local shops and hotels, as well as to develop mail order systems and farm shops. A number of traders that are involved in the farmers’ market are also part of a small network group; Peak Eats, supplying to holiday cottages, as part of a larger Peak District Foods network.
There has been significant support through the Peak District National Park, Chatsworth Estate and the Duchess of Devonshire, and more recently through EBLEX (English Beef and Lamb Executive-Quality scheme) and the support of the Prince of Wales. In addition many producers hold the Peak District Environmental Quality Mark for businesses which support the National Park’s natural assets, or receive financial support from the New Environmental Economy programme.
Customer Base
Bakewell draws some 3,000 to 4,000 customers from Manchester, Sheffield, Cheshire and Derbyshire. Customers spend around £5 to £10 per visit, which represents between 5 and 25 per cent of their weekly spend on food. The market is perceived by customers to be predominantly an extension of a day out and only around 10 per cent of the customer base live in the immediate area. Traders recognize the importance of customizing their products and are heavily reliant on feedback from customers at the farmers’ market to adjust their offering to consumers needs. Producers have extended their product range, e.g. range of vegetables, packaging and processed products to enhance customer’s interest.
Exhibit 18.3 Askern Farmers’ Market
Askern Market was first held on the 24th September 2004 and was, for a period of 2 years, held every third Thursday of the month. The project was established by the Doncaster Rural Trust, in conjunction with the local parish council and charities, such as Sure Start, and funded with Objective 1 money. The project was predominantly designed to promote healthy eating for the local community whilst also drawing in outside visitors in order to boost income to the area, and increase income to local farmers. The market now only operates intermittently, with the occasional market at Christmas and Easter.
Askern is a small rural village that is situated 7 miles from Doncaster on the Humber Levels in the North of England. Until the early 1900s, the village was predominantly based on agricultural activity, but whose population grew seasonally due to tourism. A fresh water spring in Askern was said to hold curing properties, and during holiday periods the population of the village doubled as surrounding urban populations came to take the cure. In the early 1900s, the area was found to be rich in coal and the population of Askern grew as the highly mobile mining communities moved to profit from this new coalfield. During the miners’ strikes of the 1980s, the town suffered, and the mine was closed by the 1990s. The area is beset by high levels of unemployment, although there is a strong informal market economy.
Askern is located on either side of the A19, identified as a main tourism route to the coast. The area is also of archaeological interest. The iron age site of Sutton Common nearby was excavated in summer 2003, funded by English Heritage, but little remains are evident and plans to develop a visitor centre were less than successful.
In addition, the location of the village on the edge of the Pennine Trail was seen to offer a point of respite for hikers and bikers, attracting passing trade, particularly in the summer months.
The farmers’ market started with around 27 stalls, but had diminished to around 8 at the time of its demise. Average incomes per stall ranged from £100 to £500 at the beginning of the market, although these dropped to less than £200 for even the most profitable stalls as time went on. The market is sited on one of two locations depending on the weather. During winter months, the market has tended to be held within a hall in a council building whilst during the spring, summer and autumn months, it can be found beside a small lake in the centre of the village. The market organizers chose a number of ways to market the event. Flyers were widely distributed in Askern and the surrounding villages, several broadcasts were made on local radio and notices were placed at the entrance to the village; however, little attempt was made to reach a wider audience.
Whilst the village had at one time been prosperous, the closure of the mines in the 1990s had led to a considerable decline in the income within the area, despite the informal economy. The village still supported a co-op, several bakers and other grocery and hardware stores. Many of these stores reported considerable losses in income after the market was opened, suggesting that the market brought little additional income to the area. The market closed in July 2006, some 20 months after its launch.
Customer base
Customers predominantly came from Askern and surrounding villages. Few people from outside the region came to the market. During the 2 years, the market was held regularly, the number of visitors to the area, who had come specifically to attend the market, barely entered into double figures. Customers spend per week averaged at around £10 to 15, and the maximum numbers of customers within the market were around 500. In comparison to the London markets, at its peak the market drew £6,750 per week, and it is unlikely that the market ever generated more than £80,000 a year. The increase in income to farmers was predominantly offset against the decline in income for local businesses.
The cases examined here show that the nature of the customer base has a significant impact on the value attained by stall-holders. The case studies outline two success stories and one ‘failure’, which highlight that the ability of a market to target and attract higher income consumers appears to be an essential component.
The industrialization of Britain has, over the last two/three centuries, distanced food production from food consumption, and the materialization of intermediaries to create linkages between farmers and consumers have to a large extent been instrumental in reducing the value attained by farmers. Furthermore, particularly since World War II, consumers have come to expect that food should appropriate a limited amount of their total disposable income. These two factors have a major impact on the value of farmers’ markets both as a source of local food and a means of regeneration. The success of farmers’ markets is contingent on two factors. Firstly of its ability to bridge the gap satisfactorily between source and consumption and secondly that disposable income of potential consumers is such to provide sufficient income to farmers to make the market a viable option. A failure to do this will result in a downward spiral and eventual failure. The number of farmers’ markets means that based on returns farmers can ‘cherry pick’ the markets that they attend. Markets with fewer customers and lower consumer expenditures will result in a decline in numbers of stallholders, thus making the market less attractive to customers and so on.
It is notable that some of the most financially successful farmers’ markets appear to be found in or around commuter belts, for instance, Winchester farmers’ market. Other ways in which ‘local’ food and farmers’ markets have proved to be successful have been sometimes in remote rural locations (Eastham, 2003, 2005) where through the development of longer transactional relationships with visitors through box schemes, mail order and Internet sales, farmers have been able to capitalize on their seasonal visitors. In essence, where there is no natural bridge between consumer and source, then there needs to be additional mechanisms to bridge the gap between the consumer and source. Even in Bakewell, where regular influxes of visitors provide income, the longer-term success is dependent upon the development of additional points of access to ‘local foods’ for consumers, in this case, the farmers’ market shop.
The strong contrast between Askern and Bakewell is worth noting. Located not more than 40 miles away, the failure in Askern was predominantly linked to its failure to attract external customers. Its 2 year survival was predominantly due to trade diversion, and as other markets within the area became more successful traders gradually shifted their business from the Askern Market. It is suggested in other chapters that by increasing the impact of farmers’ markets through the provision of entertainment, e.g. circus acts, Morris dancing, mystery plays, this can do much to differentiate the market and increase the number of stallholders. However, within Askern, when attempts were made to introduce juggling acts and similar street entertainment, the lack of awareness of potential visitors of the event provided little impetus to the project.
References
Eastham, J.F. (2003). Farmers’ Markets and Rural Policy. Unpublished Masters Dissertation, New Economics Foundation, London.
Eastham, J.F. (2005). Farmers’ markets here to stay. ICCAS Conference, Warsaw.
Holloway, L. and Kneafsey, M. (2000). Reading the space of the farmers’ market. Sociologia Ruralis, 40(3), 285–299.
Marsden, T., Banks, J. and Bristow, G. (2000). Food supply chain approaches in rural development. Sociologia Ruralis, 40(4), 425–438.
NEF(2005). Trading Places and Local Economic Impact of Street Produce and Farmers’ Markets Written by John Taylor, Matina Madrick and Sam Collin. A report by NEF (the New Economics Foundation), November 2005, New Economics Foundation, London.
NFU(2002). Farmers’ market business survey, http://www.nfu.org.uk/ino/fmbusiness.asp
Policy Commission(2002). Farming and Food: A Sustainable Future. Report of the Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food. London.