Longer Hours Displease Some Merchants : It’s Growing Season at Farm Mart

Standing up to his ankles in corn husks, Tom Staben wiped his brow and pronounced himself satisfied with the new extended hours of the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market.

“It’s been a pretty good crowd all day long,” said the Camarillo farmer, who likes to be called “Kernel Tom.” “I hope its a long-lasting thing.”

But a few feet away, some Santa Monica Mall merchants were less enthusiastic about the change, which went into effect Wednesday.

“Put it down as a double-zero loser,” said Jim Levenson, owner of the Men’s Shoe Shack. “I’ll reserve my opinion for the future, but I don’t hold much hope for it.”

At issue was a decision to change the hours of the open-air market in order to make parking spaces available for mall patrons and deliverymen who have found it hard to get to mall shops on Wednesdays.

The new hours--2 to 8 p.m. instead of 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.--are also intended to make the market’s fresh produce available to residents who cannot get there during working hours, said Amy H. Krivis, director of marketing for the Third Street Development Corp.

“We’ve just set it up for eight weeks,” she said. ‘We have no idea what the reaction will be. If it doesn’t solve any problems we won’t do it again. Or we may get a real favorable response, in which case we’ll look at doing it every year.”

Keeping Later Hours

Merchants have been encouraged to stay open later and to set up their own stands outside their shops, she said. A jazz band was provided to add to the festive atmosphere.

Although some shoppers who did not know of the new hours were baffled by the market’s absence when they arrived at the usual time Wednesday, others interviewed later said they were happy with the change.

“I think it’s terrific,” said Karen Andersen of Malibu, a downtown office worker wearing a tan business suit and and carrying briefcase. “It gives working people an opportunity to use the market.”

Some merchants welcomed the farmer’s market when it was introduced four years ago, but many turned against it, convinced that shoppers weighed down by bags of apples and oranges were not likely to browse in their shops.

Joe Miko Sr., owner of Miko’s Discount Sound Center, laughed hollowly when he recalled the opening.

“Four years ago, I said, ‘Let’s try it,’ ” he said. “The City Council said it would be a six-month trial period, and now we’re stuck with this thing. It’s about the worst thing they ever did to us. On Wednesdays we could close the store. Without exaggeration, I’d say it’s half the traffic of any other day.”

The mall, which was created by closing off 3rd Street 20 years ago, has not been a great success in recent years. Merchants say that foreigners, who once shopped heavily at the mall, do not patronize it much any more because of the strong value of the dollar. They also cite competition from new shops at the slick Santa Monica Place shopping center to explain the mall’s sagging fortunes.

Major Aggravation

But they agreed that Wednesday parking was a major aggravation, at least until this week.

“Maybe it’s a half-day improvement,” said Ken Bedrossian of Stewart Photo and Sound Co. “At noontime it was busy,” acknowledged his partner, William Lebovic.

Their shop closed at its usual time, 6 p.m., but Merle Singer of the neighboring Wesley J. Richards Pharmacy stayed open late and arranged a display table on the walkway outside her store.

“I think any new thing is good for the mall,” she said. “The music, the food, these are all attractions. People are still getting used to the idea. Nothing happens in a day and I think it’s a good thing.”

The old hours are scheduled to be reinstated in September, when shorter days make evening shopping less practical.

But in any case, officials of the Third Street Development Corp., which was founded last year to revitalize the mall, say the shopping street is in for significant changes soon.

A five-year plan is being drawn up to refurbish storefronts, add new landscaping, install more parking and introduce open-air dining to attract shoppers, according to Thomas Carroll, executive director of the city-sponsored firm.

The plan, scheduled for presentation to the City Council on Aug. 13, includes one or two department stores and a hotel, he said.

All this is expected to add up to a “festival marketplace,” but it is not yet clear just how the farmers market will fit in, he said.

Busiest in State

Shifting it to a daily basis would relieve the Wednesday crunch, he said, but it would also mean that many of the farmers who now come to Santa Monica would be forced out, since the rest of their week is dedicated to open-air markets elsewhere.

Santa Monica’s, which grosses an average of $35,000 a week, is the busiest of its kind in the state, according to Peggy Curran, acting director of the city’s Community and Economic Development Department.

It provides cheap, good-quality produce, she said, and although there is no consensus among merchants on whether it is a help or a hindrance, “we think, on balance, that the market contributes to the overall health of the mall.”

More parking and improved access from the parking structures will be a top priority for the revitalization project, she said.

The mall extends along 3rd Street from Wilshire Boulevard to Colorado Avenue. The farmer’s market is staged at Arizona Avenue, where Lynn Pease, a farmer’s daughter, sells apples, oranges, plums and other produce.

The change of hours Wednesday resulted in a near-sellout, she said, despite her initial fears that shoppers would not know about it.

“Actually, it kind of helps us to start later,” she said, since more time is left for last-minute chores.

But she and her crew will get back to the Tee Pee Ranch in Lake Elsinore later in the evening, leaving only a few hours before they have to start out again for the next day’s market.

“We’ll just have to make up our sleep in the weekends,” she said. “I just hope it works out for the merchants. . . . There’s no way we’d leave this market. It’s like our mother market. My dad calls it ‘Santa Money-ca.’ ”