The pandemic made Ina Braun feel helpless. Self-described as a "change agent for the Earth," Braun, also known as The Bagtivist, aims to reduce waste by teaching people to upcyle.
Normally, Braun runs an interactive stall at the market where shoppers can drop by to turn old shirts into reusable tote bags. However, with the pandemic limiting interaction and also reinforcing the use of plastic bags for sanitary reasons, Braun had to pivot.
This season, her table is crowded with brightly colored, handmade face masks and the new mission of reducing usage of disposable masks.
While Braun’s business is the most obviously influenced by COVID-19, many changes have kept the market running throughout the entire pandemic besides the standard hand sanitizer stations and mask requirements.
Reminders to “Please order from BEHIND the green barriers!” and to “Please keep your mask ON!” are as numerous as the different types of produce on display.
Around the market, many vendors have implemented contactless payment methods, roped off their stalls to deter produce gropers, and introduced a pickup system to accommodate more cautious customers.
However, these changes don’t come easily to the vendors. Braun, for example, is one of the few vendors who still operates as a cash-only business: customers drop exact change into a box and she carefully uses tongs to hand over a mask of their choosing. When asked why she hadn’t made the switch, Braun sighed. As a small business, she doesn’t have the time or the resources to switch over to more advanced systems, especially since this isn’t her full-time job.
Chris and Guy, who declined to share their last names, run Sweetleaf Farm and are among the vendors who have adopted online ordering and pickup. It’s a lot more work for the small business which sells hydroponically-grown greens.
Chris elaborated they now have an extra day of work, as they must harvest early to “put inventory online and organize orders in time,” but it’s undeniably a popular service. Sweetleaf Farm almost always sell out of its online inventory, with pickup orders making up about half of their sales.
Despite all the challenges, there have been some surprising upsides to the pandemic as well. Andrew Lovering, who runs The Foraged Feast, says that he’s actually had more customers since the pandemic hit and attributes this to food transparency. “People are cooking more at home and want to explore more interesting foods,” he says as he pushes a brown bag of shrimp of the woods towards a regular. He explains that “customers appreciate knowing that I’m the only one who’s ever touched these mushrooms and that I can tell them exactly where they were picked.”
Speaking to a few of the marketgoers, it’s clear that they appreciate the precautious that have been taken.
Mark and Heather Schey, fans of the market for almost a decade, are among the customers who never stopped coming. When the pandemic hit, the family turned to the pickup system. What used to be a family outing with their children, turned into what Mark described as a “mad dash” to pick up orders and sanitize them before returning home.
Today, however, the entire family is here, wearing their masks and enjoying the sunny weather.
“We’ve relaxed our precautions because the risk is obviously much lower at the market as compared to in grocery stores,” Mark explains. Corey Greenberg, another long-time market customer, puts it quite frankly: “Honestly, there is a maximal Venn diagram overlap for people who shop at farmer’s markets and people who aren’t crazy.” Clarifying, Greenberg says that he’s noticed fellow marketgoers are more cognizant of each other and are less likely to be anti-masker “COVID-iots.”
Ultimately, the farmer’s market customers and vendors have adapted together. There’s a sense of community and trust here – the customers are loyal, and the vendors truly care. In fact, many customers commented that they would shop exclusively at the market if they could. But as Mark notes, “It’s challenging when your kids run out of milk mid-week and the market doesn’t open until Sunday.”
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