Who Shops at a Mature Farmers’ Market?

Growth in the number of farmers’ markets is slowing. As of August 2017, there were 8,687 markets, double the number from 10 years ago but only a 0.2% growth from the previous year (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2018), indicating that growth in the number of markets has leveled off. Many parts of the country, particularly in urban areas, are witnessing a saturation of farmers’ markets. Producers complain that maintaining a presence at multiple markets has increased costs more than it has added revenues (Zepeda and Reznickova, 2018). These vendors question whether adding markets increases the number of shoppers or just makes it more convenient for those customers currently shopping at farmers’ markets. With the number of farmers’ markets leveling off, what do we know about the shoppers who visit these established, mature markets? What are they buying? What are impediments to further growth? We conducted a survey of shoppers at one of the oldest and largest producer-only farmers’ markets in the country to find out.Visitors to the DCFM are not “average” food shoppers. While their incomes are higher than the U.S. average (31% have household income above $96,000, compared to 20% of U.S. households), the characteristic that most distinguishes them is that they are far more educated than the average American. They are twice as likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree (77% vs. 32% of U.S. population) and more than three times as likely to have completed a graduate or professional degree (38% vs. 12%). The average age is somewhat younger: just under 46 years old, versus 50 years for the U.S. population. Household size of DCFM visitors is smaller than the U.S. average (2 vs.2.5 people), but the proportion of children under 18 is similar (20% vs. 21%). Since the University of Wisconsin-Madison has 45,000 students, it should not be surprising that shoppers at the DCFM are highly educated, young, and have small households and few children. While these shoppers may not be similar to the average US shopper, they are reflective of the residents in the town where the farmers’ market is located. These results are consistent with Aguirre (2007), Zepeda (2009), and Conner et al. (2010), who found no significant difference in education, age, or income between farmers’ market shopper and non-shoppers in the United States and Michigan.