I’ve been somewhat negligent in my tradition of sharing market reports each week, due to a variety of work and home related disruptions. A lot of good things going, but just not enough time in the day to get everything done as hoped. And for some reason, I think this entire season is going to be that way!
Opening Day went nearly as expected, although I believe we were all very pleasantly surprised by the sheer size of the crowds. It not only was the largest opening day ever, but also the largest market day in our history — that was as good as it’s ever been! Pretty amazing, and hopefully a sign of good things ahead.
2012, so far:
- 3/24 River Market, $7,800 total sales, $269 sales/vendor avg
- 3/31 River Market, $11,500, $311 avg
- 4/14 River Market, $6,150, $256 avg
- 4/21 River Market, $4,056, $290 avg
The River Market is primarily a tourist-centric market, and thus tends to have strongest sales during the tourist season — Memorial Day through Labor Day. It’s certainly not bad at the moment, and the weather is milder… just different.
Our Sunday Market is traditionally more oriented towards the locals, although we’ve reached the size where it has become a regional tourist attraction as well. Our product sales typically favor foods & farms during this portion of the year, but arts/crafts still can do quite well — some days better than others.
Our average sales for this last weekend were exceptional across the board:
- 4/22 Opening Day, $104,100 total vendor sales!, $609 average sales/vendor!
Simply incredible. For those that enjoy whacky stats, that amount works out to $5.78 per second! Local really is better!
The product categories which did well were very evenly distributed - everything from art, furniture, concessions, farms, flowers, photography, clothing, jewelry and body care products all posted above-average sales. Overall, there were no product-specific sales spikes common with some events (like Strawberry Day or Oktoberfest); it was a well-rounded event.
The downside of having crowds that large is that it isn’t necessarily great for casual shopping; to this point, some of our vendors outside did much better than similar vendors inside… outside was more relaxed! I expect that we won’t see this size of crowd again for a while, so our more relaxed nature will return - and sales should improve for those products/vendors which benefit from closer vendor/customer interactions. The crowds are exciting a buzzworthy, but not always the most profitable.
Regardless, it’s nice to start the season with a record breaker! I look forward to seeing you again this weekend, have a great week!