Merchants Don’t Buy Farmers Market : Business: Store owners say they have lost customers to the enterprise and want an end to Saturday market.
More than a dozen Santa Monica business owners who attended a Chamber of Commerce meeting last week urged an end to the recently created Saturday Farmers Market and called for a relocation of the Wednesday market.
The business owners called the 84-stand outdoor market a business “killer” and claimed to have lost customers because of the market’s traffic.
The chamber’s Central Business District Committee agreed to form a task force to look into the concerns expressed at the meeting. Once a study on the market is complete, the task force will present its recommendations to the City Council. Representatives from the city or the market were not at the meeting.
The market, celebrating its 10th year, was originally intended to bring quality, low-cost produce to senior citizens and low-income residents. It has blossomed into a business grossing nearly $3 million a year. Santa Monica charges farmers 4 1/2% of their gross to pay for operating expenses.
Wednesday’s market draws more than 7,000 shoppers each week. Saturday’s market draws fewer than 1,000 people, according to Laura Avery, the city’s market manager.
Avery, in a telephone interview, defended the market and said only a handful of merchants have complained about it.
But United Food and Commercial Workers President Michael A. Straeter said at last week’s meeting that most local grocers undergo significant sale reductions on Wednesday as a result of the market. “I’m opposed to the whole concept, frankly. It’s destroying local businesses that provide the tax base for the city,” he said. “Are we asleep at the switch? Expansion to Saturday is absolutely ludicrous.”
Mike McGuire, owner of Fireside Market on Montana Avenue, said his volume is off by 20% on Wednesdays, and his losses trickle down to his employees. “I’ve had to cut down store hours for my employees,” he said. McGuire complained that he can’t compete with the market prices, because he has fixed expenses that the farmers don’t have.
McGuire also complained that produce is stacked on the sidewalks during the market and that there is no refrigeration. “If I tried to do that, I guarantee the health department would shut me down,” he said.
Joe Miko, owner of Miko Photo and Sound, also complained of unfairness. “We pay for redevelopment and parking through our taxes. The fact is these farmers come in one day a week, reap the benefits, take the money and run,” he said.
“Wednesdays are dead days for us,” he said. “Traditionally, Saturday is our biggest selling day, now the market is starting to kill that day.”
Merchants were unanimous in their description of the parking problems as a nightmare.
“Well, there have been some very interesting stories being told here today,” remarked Dave Paradis, executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce. He added that the market and merchants seem to be at “major cross-purposes.”
Among the suggestions of merchants at the meeting was the relocation of the market to the Civic Auditorium parking lot or the pier, and a change in hours.
