It is wrong,wrong,wrong to do that to a customer. Customers are like gold and you cant treat them like a 2 year old. Maybe some customers have work or something else at 3:30. Never, I repeat never turn down a sale because of a few ticks on a clock. Your Market manager should not be allowed any where near a market or a commercial enterprise with a terrible policy like that.
Remember, the customer is always right (Unless they come to your home and wake you up in the middle of the night for their produce.)

As more and more markets require that you do NOT sell before opening time, this situation will come up more often. I've had one market in the past that the market master could make an exception, but otherwise if you sold before opening time, you could and would be thrown out. This market was and still is a very successful market that has a waiting list for vendors, of several seasons.

We now have 1 market with the same rules, we allow people to look (within a few minutes) of opening, but NO ringing up of sales until opening time.

In larger towns and markets this is happening more often, due to some people showing up very early and making it difficult for the other vendors to set up. If you ever set up next to one of them, you have to work around customers and it can be somewhat dangerous to the customers as you are setting up your booth.

I understand the smaller markets not having rules of any kind, but when you sign a contract you are to follow or expect to be removed.

Marla

It is just like when you have a garage sale and people try to get in early to get the good stuff before someone else does. I opened my door one time before a sale just to leave and put up the signs and someone was in my driveway waiting. I told him to leave while I was gone putting up signs.

Back to market: here is another annoying thing people do. Across the street from market is the community center. Some old people program gets done at 3:00 so they come over and glance over your stuff criticizingly even when you don't even have it all out of the coolers yet!
No there must be an opening time because otherwise people would be grabbing at your stuff as you drove your truck up! And Marla is right it is dangerous.
And so many fake and pretend they thought the market opens at 3 not 3:30 so they can get first dibs. I mean when only half the vendors are there and some are just putting up their canopy how can it be started already? I always tell them it has always been 3:30 and point out how few are set up yet.
So should I say I will not put stuff aside for anyone but other vendors?

Our Saturday downtown market has a lot of senior citizens frequent it - trust me they are the worst when it comes to jumping the gun. The market is set up in the city park so everything has to be hauled in from the street - I literaly have seen produce picked off the dolly as it was being moved. It is worse at the begining of the season - I guess they forget over the winter - but by the end they queue up nicely. It is rather satisfying the see a line at the booth first thing in the morning.

Tom

Minnie, I would not say that I put anything aside for anyone.

Our senior customers are the ones that appreciate how much time gardening takes, since most have grown up on farms nearby. Yes, they think our prices are outrageous (in comparison to when they had a garden), but they are also the ones that can tell a younger person EXACTLY what produce is supposed to look like and taste like.

Marla

Not all young people are ignorant...I started gardening when I was 12 and just got into market gardening at 26. I clearly remember my Dad asking me to spend less time gardening and more time on studying to get good grades. LOL. Zero farm background here. I'm quite the renegade in my family.

Okra, you are an exception in my area. Most of my seniors are teaching the grandkids about gardening, but the generation between kind of missed out on alot of this stuff.

Marla

Our market is like that. You just smile and explain to them (over your shoulder as you're working) that the market opens at ____ fill in the time.... and that if you sell early, you get kicked out of the market. So your hands are tied. You don't hold anything for anyone because that is considered selling early, and you just can't afford to get kicked out....then you say, I know, I can't believe it either, but it IS the rule...that way you aren't considered unfriendly by your customers, but you can play by the rules too. You don't want your potential customers to think you're a jerk.

I use to go to a market like that. I kinda stinks, but it is kinda nice. It stinks because everyone is there at, insert start time, then they are all gone 30-45 minutes later. I would always try to find people to come with me to sell because, as a one man vending operation, I could never take money fast enough and people would buy from other people instead of waiting for me.

Now the two markets I attend, don't have that rule. You start to sell when you are ready or not ready. For the last month I have had customers help me put out produce. They were there for something I had and were willing to help. That is what I call customer loyalty!

The positive is you can take your time to set up and you don't have to be distracted by sales.

Jay

People shopping early drives me crazy. I used to try and explain to them that the market isn't open yet and I would be more than happy to help them when the market opens and all vendors are set up. This didn't work so now I just ignore people until the opening time. I will tell them good morning or something to that effect but then it head down and right back to my work. I also make sure I stay on the opposite side of my booth from them, that way they would have to move to the other end of the booth to talk to me. Walking over to my truck and opening the door always deters them to. They same people end up coming back after the market opens so I don't think they are offended.

2 of the 4 markets we sell in have a time rule. I have an issue with it at only the afternoon markets. Its so hot and people dont want to stand around in the heat. one of my market managers SUCKS . she is not a good people person and I wonder why non people persons want jobs like this. Here is my example the town hosts an art crafts festival and to be honest the crowd is huge. she wont let the farmers market people enter except as food vendors and the waiting list for that is huge. and one day this summer it was 110 degrees on the bank. I set up a little early and a Guy came up and wanted to buy a bag of peaches so I sold them. the market manager then came and stood in front of my stand to keep me from selling again. over 1/2 the vendors didnt come that day and no one sold well. This kind of thing drives me crazy. did I also mention they doubled the fees this years as the spots are bigger. If only the crowds were bigger. My ranting is over

You should run your business the way you want to run it. Do whatever you are comfortable with doing.

The customer is not always right. There are plenty of people out there that want to "game" the system, work a deal, get special treatment...whatever. I ignore them but you may need their business so do what you feel is best.

Even if you didn't hold an item for an early bird and they and your regular customer showed up at the same time and both wanted it, you'd be up a creek. All you could do is offer your regular something special to smooth things over if they lost the wrestling match.

Before the farmers market I used to sell at a huge inner city flea market - the first wave of people through the gate were often crazy people that only wanted to cause trouble. They had no money. They weren't shopping. They just wanted to get in people's way and stir things up. You develop a tough skin and learn to keep those people far away from your booth and real customers. Thank god the place had a lot of security guards, sometimes things got ugly.

We told a person trying to buy before the opening bell that it was against the rules to do so and so the farmer next to us went to the market manager and had the rule changed. than the market manager told us about the rule change and assured us he was talking to each vendor separately about this rule change. It turns out he has told no one else about this (we asked around and no other vendors were told). So I am not even certain if there was a real rule change or if he is just BSing us to get us out of the market (for some reason he is now mad at us and treating us badly).

The market has been losing customers for the past 18 months due to a dog ban and they have dramatically increased fees so we have been making less and less money at this market. And due to this we have decided to either quit this FM altogether of come in sporadically next year and concentrate on our CSA and farm store. Also there is a new food co-op opening up near us that wants to buy our produce so I do not think we need to do FM's any longer.

I will miss all the friends I see there every Saturday.

Boulderbelt, I understand your problem and have been there. My old market also had a dog ban (a law in the city especially for the farmers market), but when they started enforcing it, the dog-person customers left and they were some of the best buying customers.

As far as the changing the sale-time rule changing, I would change when and if I received the news in writing and not before that. It sounds to me, like they are attempting to push you out.

We also had a food co=op trying to start and they did buy from some from other vendors, after contacting us to buy (but never did).

We basically quit for this year (done some smaller markets) and are now planning for next year.

Marla

Now the market managers gave us laminated sticky signs to post on all our canopies allerting people to the opening time. (There are no customers now anyway.)