Market Plan

The Kensington Community Market Plan

Goal: To increase foot traffic and vendor profitability at the Kensington Farmer’s Market in a way that benefits the vendors and the community. To support this goal, we plan to do the following:

  1. Hire Chris Hall as Market Manager and direct him to continue what he did during his seven months as market manager, supported by a local community board that approves, supports, and budgets for his efforts.

  2. Promote the Market. Commit a minimum of 25% of all booth fees to promotional efforts for the market on an ongoing basis as soon as we cover startup costs. If you want to run year round then the new board will devote extra promotional funds to encourage traffic to the market from December through April. Promotion includes: enhanced website with links to vendors’ sites, regular emails to customers, advertising, posters, flyers, coupons, raffles, increased signage, etc.

  3. Recruit new vendors and fine-tune the balance in our market to keep it responsive to the community so residents continue to shop at the market.

  4. Develop an events program for regular music; children’s activities such as face-painting, fire trucks, magicians; local chefs’ demonstrations using market ingredients; events at the market (approved by the vendors) such as Holiday Fairs, Back to School, etc. These are designed to draw more people to the market and keep people at the market longer.

  5. Build a community outreach program with the local businesses and restaurants, schools, seniors, churches and other community groups to build extended support for the market. Use volunteers from these groups to participate in publicity and access. Example: Provide transportation for seniors and other community members who are not at mobile or live too far from our market to walk.

  6. Ensure that the market supports the ongoing needs of the vendors. Have a vendor representative to the board to ensure we have ongoing vendor input on important decisions about your market—such as whether to stay open during the winter.

As we’re entering the winter months, some drop off may occur short term, especially if the weather turns nasty. We plan to focus on rebuilding and promotion over the winter months and achieve full potential in the spring.