DOWN ON THE FARM

MINA WILLIAMS

In an era when messages like 5 a Day are finally hitting home with many consumers, traditional farmers' markets are thriving.

During the summer months, especially, these alternative formats are bristling with local produce that is often touted as fresher, less pesticide laden, or otherwise grown with tender care by community farmers.

Savvy retailers always keep a wary eye on any alternative format that might steal sales, particularly from a department as lucrative as produce. But many of them these days are looking at farmers' markets more as inspirations than as threats.

The "farmers' market look" now predominates in new stores and remodels all over the country, epitomized by the wood-grain slant tables and rough-hewn chalkboard signs made popular by fresh food trendsetters such as Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegman's Market.

Other elements of the farmers' market appeal are also appearing in supermarket produce operations, from local produce promotions to larger selections of organics. It all speaks of naturalness and getting back to basics.

Even the natural food supermarket format -- which many conventional chains do see the need to respond to -- pays homage to farmers' markets.

"We do not see farmers' markets as competition, but rather a validation of our concept and our philosophy of support to local farmers," said Jim Lee, president, Wild Oats Community Markets, Boulder, Colo.

"When consumers go to a farmers' market, they actually gain an appreciation for the local farmer and organics in particular. In some cases, they may see the same farmers at the market that they see in our stores," he said.

Lee added, "Farmers' markets could take a little of our business. We see a little change in the summer, but it is hard to quantify if our business is actually affected. Our produce sales spike in the summer despite farmers' markets. Soft fruit, melons and berries are great sellers."

Wild Oats is not alone in its enjoyment of the fruits of summer sales. Nor is it the only operator that has taken to evaluating the selection, merchandising and marketing techniques that draw fresh food consumers to a destination market that is often out of their way, on rural back roads or in urban parking lots.

The farmers' market operators are aware of this scrutiny. "Retailers model their produce department after farmers' markets," said Mark Musick, a farm specialist at Pike Place Market, a famous open-air market in downtown Seattle.

"Our market has been used as a model," he said. "It is used as a training ground for traditional retailers, to see how a farmers' market is done, the look, the air and the feel, which is then carried over into a store's design, display and lighting."

The farmers' market operators interviewed by SN agreed with retailers that competition between themselves and supermarkets is not an issue.

"Our existence is not even a blip on the retail grocer's radar," said Laura Avery, the farmers' market coordinator for the city of Santa Monica, Calif.

"Neither of us compete with each other," said Mary Carpenter, market manager, Dane County Farmer's Market on the Square, Madison, Wis.

Conflicts do occur, however, when farmers' markets are not strictly produce markets, or when produce from the same sources is supplied to both the market and to a grocery store or restaurant.

And the commercial produce industry may have a different take on the relationship. "During the summer, [alternative formats] sprout up all over," said Matt Seeley, marketing director, Nunes, a vegetable grower based in Salinas, Calif.

"We feel the effects each summer," Seeley said. "There is a perception that the product is fresher. However, unless you grow your own, in your own back yard, the product that goes directly to a traditional retailer is the freshest you will find."

In addition to the perception, deserved or not, that the products are fresher and somehow more wholesome at the local market, another reason these operators are popular is their selection.

Uncommon or specialized produce, including old variety and heirloom peaches, plums, nectarines and tomatoes, along with abundant organic selections, are more often the volume drivers at farmers' markets.

"Farmers' markets are one of the most powerful and effective devises in promoting people eating more fruits and vegetables," said Randii...[CORRECT SPELLING?]... MacNear, market manager, Davis Farmer's Market, Davis, Calif. "People will not stop going to supermarkets, but they may be introduced to new varieties and have a chance to taste them."

"As society goes more high-tech, people need more high touch," said Sylvia Tawse, The Fresh Ideas Group, a Boulder, Co.-based consultancy. "There is a simplicity movement, a need for people to at least feel they have a simpler life." The basic pleasures of shopping a farm stand play on that need.

The story behind the product is another compelling reason consumers seek out farmer's markets. There, they have a chance to ask growers how items are grown, when they were picked, and so on. They treat this alternative shopping experience as a direct line between the farm and the city.

For farmers, these outlets are prime venues at which to move smaller volumes of produce, and often is their only way to gain access to a marketing channel outside traditional distribution systems.

Meanwhile, grocers in many markets continue to tweak their departments toward farmer's stand mimicry.

"A lot of retailers emulate the appearance of a farmers' market in the way the department is merchandised and the fixtures that are used," said Wild Oats' Lee. "We try to craft a look ourselves which punctuates the farm-to-table look."

The chain also seeks to replicate the kinds of merchandising touches that represent a passion for the product. It eagerly and continually cuts fruit, for example.

"We sample like crazy," said Lee. "When fruit in particular is at its peak, you want people to see, taste and experience it."

The appropriation of farmers' market merchandising appeal is leading stores to move displays outdoors where possible; and growing numbers of supermarkets are buying and promoting more locally grown produce.

In some cases this convergence of supermarket and farmers' market is interpreted most literally, with local farmers peddling their produce in a store's parking lot.

Thursday is farmers' market day at Young's Giant Food in Morrow Bay, Calif., for example. From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., between 30 and 50 local farmers come set up their stands in the grocer's lot.

"We started the farmers' market when farmers approached us with the idea," said Vivian Gong, manager at Young's Giant Food. "We did it not for our own benefit, we just did it for the farmers. We simply offer a place for farmers to sell what they grow."

It does, however, benefit the grocer nonetheless. Customers generally visit the farmers' market and then go into the store to pick up the other items they need to complete their meal, said Gong.

This farmers' market is open only to growers of fruits and vegetables, and there are no crafts, baked goods or dairy products, she added. And only farmers are allowed to participate, with the one exception being a California Polytechnic Institute's produce stand, which is an extension of the local university's campus-bound agricultural store; at that stand students that may not have actually farmed the crop, are allowed to man the stand.

"It's a real give-and-take situation," Gong said. "And we have had no problems."

She added that produce sales do not dip when the market is operating. "There is a happy medium to be found between farmers' markets and grocers," said Gong.