From:
To: John Jay; Mary Gourley; City Council; Don Schwartz
Subject: Support for Sebastopol Farmer"s Market
Date: Tuesday, January 21, 2025 9:33:16 AM
Hi all,
I'm writing in to express support for the Sebastopol Farmer's market and the requested changes to their use permit:
- Allow the market to operate between the hours of 9 AM - 1:30 PM: this is helpful to businesses downtown to overall encourage foot traffic early, and incredibly helpful to community member's with families and small children who rely on the market for their groceries. It is much easier to navigate the market earlier.
Since the hours have changed, our business has seen a decline in sales from 7 am - 10 am, on average we are 30% slower each Sunday since that change went into effect. - Allow the market to have full control over the mix of vendors: in this day and age, we can no longer operate a successful farmer's market without a wide variety of complimentary vendors serving food, beverages, and vending their arts at the market. The vendor mix shows how diverse our community is and allows for a more successful market for all vendors, but especially farmers. People enjoy the diversity and if we take that away, they will instead support other farmer's markets that do not have restrictions on the number of arts n craft vendors in relation to the number of farmers.
I started my business at farmer's markets in 2015 - we know from firsthand experience that the diversity of vendors directly relates to the diversity of foot traffic and in turn, boosts sales for all. People who sell at farmer's markets are the smallest of small businesses in our community:
they are people who do not have other outlets to sell like a brick & mortar shop, and rely on the farmer's market for affordable booth fees. Often, booth fees at craft fairs are more than double the cost of a farmer's market stall. For example, The Trade in the Barlow costs $120 - $230 for a stall, whereas the farmer's market booth fee is less than half. - Allow the market to expand seasonally with more vendors: the farmer's market has operated in debt for a long time, well before current manager Barbara took over. She inherited a lot of debt and poor financial planning when she began managing the market. In order to continue to make the market successful and not operate in the red, they need to increase the amount of vendors to collect more booth fees. Increasing the market space seasonally also enhances the market as our community living room - providing more space for engagement, and more opportunity for sellers to make sales with an increase in overall foot traffic.
Ultimately, the farmer's market is a gem to our community and our small business community.
The market is directly putting a lot of foot traffic in front of every business in downtown Sebastopol. Majority of small businesses downtown appreciate and value the farmer's market for bringing this to our front door, and it should come as no surprise that the community at large relies on the market each Sunday for more than just fresh produce.
Thank you,
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photo Danielle Connor, she/her
Co-Founder, Head of Operations,
Retrograde Coffee Roasters