our market starting time is 8. rigid starting times began last year when some people thought they were losing business to other vendors because they werent able to get there and set up as early and as quickly as the others.
i hate the market politics and want to enjoy doing this so i have stayed away from meetings and market discussions. my negativity about how things are done will end up contributing nothing.

Seems that you need to bring this matter to your vendors' meeting(s) or market manager.

Three choices:
Change the opening time for the whole market.
Allow vendors to sell before the official opening time.
Leave as it is and decide to live with it or go elsewhere.

We could all speculate, but it surely wouldn't help you. Small local market here opens about 7, no rule about early sales (or even late ones). Used to be the bulk of sales were before 9:30 or so. Seems that folks sleep in a little these days and that time shifts a little later. Of course, there are those dear souls who arrive after 11:30 and wonder why the vendors are sold out of corn or beans or "whatever".

Starting times for Chicago farmers markets are 7:00, even on weekends. No one fusses about earlier sales.

The saturday morning market opens at 7:30am and we do allow sales before opening but personally I would like to see no sales before open so we vendors have some peace while setting up. As i am on this market's board I have brought this up but was voted down by the other board members and thus we have our policy of vendors being able to sell as early as they can get there and get set up but everyone must stop sellng at 11:30 so everyone is off the premises no later than noon.

Been in a few markets but for the only truly organized market that I belong to this topic seems to come up most often at meetings. I'm with Ohiorganic in that I want an hour to setup and prepare and would prefer the customers browse and compare produce quality and prices during that time. We find that the selling becomes frantic from starting time for a few hours with little extra time to restock tables. I've had some items never make it on the sales table for hours because of the lack of enough setup time and that I will accept blame for. But, You need to let the customer know when the market begins and you need to stick by that or many will want to start buying earlier every week and others will get upset and stop coming. A common starting time that never changes from year to year is the best for everyone in the long run.

Our market starts at 830. If any vendor sells before the opening bell they risk being fined. There are always a few customers that want to buy early but generally they understand the "rules". I personally would not appreciate a market that would allow sales before the opening bell. We need time to set up and organize before the market starts. As far as worrying if early customers will go to Walmart instead.??????? Walmart???....well I'm not going there. That just isn't a concern of mine.
Glenda

I am new to the farmers market, starting at a new farmers market! I find this interesting and informative. Our market starts at 9 am but there is *always* someone shopping before the bell rings. I have almost always made a sale before 9 am. Though it bugs the crap out of me, I won't turn them away. I am usually rushing about to be ready by 9 and make off hand comments to whomever is buying that they know we are not open yet, though I remain cheerful and curtious! There are no rules, as of yet regarding selling before the bell. But I find this thread interesting and I see that there is a potential problem if rules aren't strictly in place.

The market where I sell starts at 5:00AM. I get there about 4:15 and several other vendors are already set up. Closing time is 3:00PM.

I sell at a flea market instead of a Farmer's Market in part because of the starting times. Flea market opens at 9am whereas the Farmer's Market has lots of customers at 6am (you have to be there in line to get a drop in booth at 5am). I prefer to eat breakfast and double check everything before spending a day with the masses so I choose the later times of the Flea Market.

One thing I noticed right off the bat is that there are early birds getting in the way of set up. At first I thought they were just insomniacs trying to get first peek at the wares, but now I realise that some of them are con artist trying to confuse you with tons of nonsensical questions while you are busy setting up hoping to trip you up and get a special price for something. Got screwed once. Learned my lesson. Now I block the front of my space until I am ready for customers. If someone asks me a question I politely tell them that the market opens at 9.

I learned along time ago, the earlier you start selling the earilier your customers show up. We open at 9 customer flow in at 8, No Slaes before 9 is the rule and we stick by it. Sure some people will go else wheres, but some come back at the opening time. Look Sears, Kmat, Wallmart all open (unless 24 hour stores) at a set time. When I worked both for J C Penney and Sears I was told it was an insurance issue.
For me as a market manager it is a issue with getting everyone setup,and gives me a chance to double check what everyone has and check for safety hazards. If you open sales when ever customers start coming your getting trained by them, they will come earlier next week and up till you put a stop to it.
We have a product that our customers base wants and some go out of their way to reach us. Setting up an opening time is just plan good business sense.

Tom

I once held a garage sale at 4am!! and people showed up. Boy were they disappointed to see the crap I was trying to unload.