A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush

Through my experience moonlighting as a Farmers' Market employee the last couple Saturdays I have learned a great deal about marketing. This past Saturday a situation came up that made me realize that split second decision making is just as crucial to a small family-owned orchard business as it is to any Fortune 500 company. It was around 10:00 a.m., about halfway through the market day already, and peaches had been flying through the check out table all morning when we received an interesting question from a customer. The customer wanted to purchase 5 half bushel boxes of peaches; roughly 100 pounds worth.

Now, usually, we may see few customers throughout the day who buy one or two half bushel boxes at a reduced wholesale price, but 5 boxes was an unprecedented number. I went to the woman in charge and asked if it could be done. I suggested that maybe we could compromise and sell them 3 boxes instead of 5. I was concerned that if we let that many go we might run out of peaches well before the market closed and risk disappointing several of our regular retail customers. But the boss thought that it was worth the risk, she sold 5 boxes to the couple at wholesale price and it ended up working out perfectly. We sold the last peach a few minutes before the market closed. Now, maybe on a different day her decision could have backfired on her; that’s not my point. My point is that it’s easy for us to forget that farms and other small businesses face a high level of risk every day. You don’t have to show up to work in a suit and tie everyday to have good business sense and risk management skills.

The Power of Choice

As consumers we all feel empowered by choice. And when it comes to food, options are never a bad thing, at least in my opinion. For a grower involved in retail fruit and vegetable marketing one way to empower the consumer is by doing a pick-your-own operation, through which customers walk around your orchard and are able to pick out what they want. The idea of pick-your-own has been around for many years and some agricultural businesses have been pretty successful with it. However, the liabilities that come with letting people roam around your farm can prove to be too costly for many growers. But, there are many simpler ways that you can empower your customers. One of these easy little techniques was brought to my attention this past Saturday at the Gettysburg Farmers' Market.

While I was strolling around the market I came across a booth that had many different varieties of cherry tomatoes in several different colors and sizes. As I was trying to decide what variety to buy, the woman behind the counter said “here, just make up your own pint”. So, I grabbed the empty pint and got to work choosing my tomatoes. Something as simple as that actually made my purchasing experience much more fun. I walked away a satisfied customer with the exact combination of tomatoes that I wanted; a few smaller ones, a few oranges ones, a few white ones, etc. Though doing something like this may seem like common sense to many of you; don’t underestimate the power of choice when it comes to any aspect of marketing. Take some time to think about whether there is an item at your market that you could make more customizable for your customers.


Photo courtesy of Farm to Chef Gettysburg