The Bazaar world of women

The world of bazaar women

I’ll never forget Trish. She ran the lolly stall at the Frankton Market in Hamilton for the majority of my youth. She and I were on a first-name basis.

As soon as I’d scavenged a few dollars from mum, I’d run straight to her table to lust after whatever new candy her ‘contacts’ had sourced. “Hello my girl,” she’d greet me with her great big gappy smile. “How are we going to rot those teeth today?”

I’d pick out a few delicious treats and she’d package them in a crisp white bag; always sneaking in an extra lollipop – the key that kept me coming back each week.

Trish was one of a legion of devoted weekend workers throughout the country making and selling artisan goods at weekend markets.
From organisers to stall holders to businesses that have found their feet at craft and farmers markets, the artisan bazaars are an important feature of the Kiwi culture.

The Founders
The Frank Kitts Market is putting a face to the abundant creativity for which Wellington is renowned. The Saturday morning hangout is a hub for local creativity and a regular family-friendly experience for locals to come in to contact with creative artists. It also acts as an outlet through which many Wellington artists can make a living, and launch creative businesses.

The idea for the market first came about when Wendy Jasper relocated from Canberra to Wellington five years ago. The self-confessed market junkie was attracted to the culture of the capital but was ‘blown away’ that somewhere so vibrant had no arts market.

“There were fairs and monthly markets here and there but nothing regular. Canberra had three weekly markets; the biggest had around 250 stalls. It was part of the culture of Canberra and I was amazed Wellington didn’t have that.”

She began exploring the idea for a weekly market with homeopath and event and marketing manager Helena Tobin.

Both with kids around the same age, the pair were keen to find work that could fit around their homemaking.

“We came across a study that the Wellington City Council did and that’s when things got serious,” says Wendy. “The report told us what we already knew; that there was a need for a weekly market in the city.”

The Frank Kitts Market (run by Wellington Creative) was created to fill a need in Wellington for a high quality, incubator-style retail platform from which emerging artists can safely and successfully launch their product lines, thereby creating jobs and fostering the arts in Wellington.

“We didn’t want to set up a company that restricted us to do just markets,” Wendy explains.

“I see Frank Kitts Market as a vital link for emerging artists to be able to reach a regular audience without having to withstand the pressures of retail and self promotion.

“It is a feasible model for business where you can get going and be relating with your customers without the thousands of dollars of setting up a retail business.”

“How many people have ideas; they think it’s going to work and they do whatever business plan. You can go and study business for three years but until you actually go out and relate to your customers, you’re not going to know if it works. So much about business is getting out there and trading, then modifying to make up for weaknesses. Markets are an effective and affordable way to getting that one-on-one feedback with customers.

“We encourage our stallholders to price their goods realistically because that’s how some of them make a living and we want people to really appreciate the effort that goes into it.”

“Also, people wanting to know where things are coming from. You can actually meet the person making what you’re buying,” says Helena.
“It goes back to the whole ecological footprint,” says Wendy. “On a market it’s so much smaller than a big company.”

The pair also plan to make the market sustainable including becoming a plastic-bag-free zone.
www.frankkittsmarket.co.nz

The Advocate
Before her eldest son started school, Colleen Anderson and her family travelled around the South Island in a campervan for two months. During this time they were able to shop weekly at markets for fresh produce.
“We ate so well,” she enthuses. “It was extraordinary.”
Upon returning to her hometown of Clevedon, Colleen surmised that the lifestyle could and should be continued.

“Here we are in this beautiful green belt just outside of Auckland and I thought, why not start a market?”

Colleen, a former art teacher and mother of two grew most of her vegetables and flowers and decided a market would provide her with a career she could work around and solve a growing problem of excess produce she and other local growers had.

“You can only give so much away. It seemed like such a waste.”
Colleen spent six months visiting farm gates and glass houses meeting growers and talking to them about it. She admits, not everyone was interested at first.

“Some people leapt in to start with and some hung back for a while then got into it. Not all growers see themselves in front of the public and people are very resistant to giving up a day in the weekend. They can sell on a Sunday and grow all week – it works quite well. I still have the majority of the 20 stallholders we started with.”

Over the four years the Clevedon Village Farmers Market has been in business, Colleen has seen growers producing an extraordinary array of interesting produce, doing it very well and getting a fair price for it.
“My husband’s parents grew tomatoes for 40 years in Taupo and all of those smaller tomato growers had all but disappeared throughout the country. Commercially, tomatoes are very big operations, which mean there’s no room for the medium and small grower. Subsequently, interesting varieties of tomatoes became very hard to find.

“What I discovered among small, medium and big businesses was a culture of mono-cropping. To make your business efficient, you have to do one thing, do it well and supply an awful lot.

“Having the markets has allowed growers who were growing one type of green to now grow herbs, salad greens, cucumbers, beans, pumpkins; a full range of produce is better than just one thing unless you have a specific product that you do extraordinarily well.”

Like any new business owner, Colleen remembers the first two to three years being extremely hard work. Finding a balance between supply and demand was a particular challenge.

“You have to get people coming along to your market and you’ve got to get people selling. If people don’t come, you don’t sell anything. You can’t have 50 stall holders and two customers or vice versa. Growing it slowly and carefully so everyone stayed happy was a juggling act.”
Furthermore, not only raising awareness that the market was available rain or shine but also that the availability of goods were seasonal.
“I encourage people to go to the market with an open mind. One week you’ll have apples but maybe only for a month and a half and then they’re gone. You’re shopping and eating seasonally – learning how to eat like our grandparents and their parents ate.

“I can’t wait to see the asparagus but I’m over it by December. The same with strawberries – people don’t want them by February but in September/October, when they start to reappear, that first strawberry is like your first kiss of summer.”

To encourage this lifestyle, Colleen puts seasonal recipes in a newsletter which is distributed locally and via email.

Another unexpected add-on the market created is a small cheese business Colleen now runs with her husband, Richard.

“We needed a cheese maker and I had a few come through but when it rained or customer numbers dropped a bit, you wouldn’t see them. What makes a good market is having stall holders that are committed. My husband said that he would make cheese for me and I held him to it. In 2007, we brought some buffalo and the Clevedon Valley Buffalo Company was born.”

Colleen now enjoys selling alongside her 50+ stallholders promoting quality, freshness and a variety of local produce.
www.clevedonfarmersmarket.co.nz

The Veteran
Lesley Carroll knows a thing or two about how a market runs; she has been a stallholder for nearly 20 years.

After several years in the Air Force as a personal assistant, Lesley moved to England with her husband who was in the Navy. When the pair returned home to start a family, like many others, Lesley wanted a career that would work around her young family. Holding a stall at the markets seemed a great way to fill this need.

For 15 years, Lesley sold her range of preserves and home baking at the Takapuna markets but when the cheaper, lower quality bric-a-brac started taking over she made the move.

“It became a big $2 shop. Farmers markets are all about the food and people who enjoy food.”

Lesley prefers craft markets and farmers markets to be kept separate.
“You develop a clientele that know what they’re going for. They know that they can go to that market on Saturday to get their bread, oils, fish, cheese – everything. There are no crafts to distract them. A farmers market is a place to sell food that is made by the person. People who enjoy what they do and put their body and soul into it.”

Lesley was one of the first stall holders to the Oratia Farmers Market in Waitakere when it started two years ago. Today she sells her range of jams and preserves as well as quiches, samosas, slices and cakes with 30 other artisan foodies.

Preparation for the Saturday market starts on Thursday when she replenishes stock with fruit sourced from local small-business owners. On the day, Lesley starts baking at 3am and finishes with the closing of the markets at 1pm.

Although her goods have proven popular throughout the years, Lesley has never considered expanding her operation to stock around the country.

“You’d lose your individuality,” she says. “All my jams and chutneys are made in small batches and doing it that way means you can experiment with flavours.”

Lesley has also learnt the importance of listening to what people want.
“If you produce a jam or chutney that you think is absolutely divine but no one buys it, you need to be able to cut your losses and give it a rest. There have been times when I thought, ‘I love this product and everyone else will too’, but I’ve quickly learnt otherwise.”
www.oratiafarmersmarket.co.nz

The Serial Marketer
Lin Van Craenenbroeck is a serial market stallholder.
The first Saturday of each month, she’s at the Ponsonby Road Market and spends Sunday at the Coatesville Market. For the second weekend, she looks around for a market or school gala on Saturday and spends the Sunday at the Raglan Creative Market. The third week is her weekend off unless a special event comes up.

“Like this weekend, I’ll be at the twilight market which runs from 3-8pm in Coatesville.”

The last weekend of the month you’ll find Lin at the Ponsonby Road market again on the Saturday and the Titirangi market on Sunday.
In addition, beginning in January, Lin does a market trail which takes her through Coromandel Town, Whitianga, Cook’s Beach, Hahei Beach, Thames, Tairua and Pauanui.

“It’s like a holiday,” she quips.

With 15 years experience as a window dresser in Belgium, Lin makes one-off skirts, dresses, handbags from recycled clothing and fabric.
Her love of textiles was influenced by her grandfather, a dressmaker who made uniforms in Belgium and her mother, a skilled seamstress.
Upon moving to New Zealand three years ago, Lin had originally looked for jobs around her trade but, with no luck, she set up a workshop in her Raglan home to manufacture her crafts.

Although, at the beginning, Lin admits her intention was not to be involved with markets because the town of 3000 provides limited business, especially in the winter. She needed to go to where the customers were.

From her Raglan base Lin is able to work whenever she feels she needs to work and doesn’t feel restricted like she did in her homeland.
Lin explains how, in Europe, you need licences and diplomas to prove that you’re able to run a market stall.

“In Belgium I would have loved to do this but the paperwork always put me off. What I’m doing now I never would have been able to do in Belgium because there’s so much competition and envy between creative people that you don’t feel free enough to express yourself.”
www.moz-art.co.nz

The Success Story
The first thing Maree Glading craved after returning to New Zealand from overseas was a steak and cheese pie but found herself severely disappointed with every one she ate.

Having both worked for large corporate FMCGs (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) here and overseas, Maree and business partner, Jessie Stanley felt the food industry in New Zealand had become disillusioned.

They believed the industry had become an implementation market meaning the strategies, advertising and products New Zealand was producing had been influenced so much from overseas sources.

“We felt like the industry had become about taking everything good out of products to reduce costs,” says Maree. “We are both passionate about new product innovation and we understood that business should be about growth and profit but we still believed a product that you can be proud of is key.”

With Jessie’s experience as a food technologist and Maree’s business management, sales and marketing background skills, I Love Pies (under the umbrella of The Lovely Little Food Company) was born in 2008.
With the pie market worth $130 million and relatively unbranded, the pair saw an opportunity to produce a premium niche product.

“People just want a good pie,” says Maree, “so we ditched our jobs and started making and selling pies at the Clevedon Farmers Market.”
Of their first day at the markets in April 2008, Maree remembers selling out after just a few hours.

“We had people queuing up and a few other stallholders complained we were taking their sales.”

Maree believes the feedback from their market customers was imperative in the development of the brand, its packaging and PR strategies.
“The markets were a great arena for us to get direct feedback from our customers. We were developing our recipes and tweaking them every week after getting feedback from our customers. It also gave us a good ground to assess our price point and launch a word-of-mouth market. People who go to markets are early adopters. They like to find a new brand or product and tell their friends about it.

“It greatly reduced the risk of spending all that money on advertising, communication and packaging and then finding out our customers didn’t care. It’s like cheap market research.

“After we had been at the markets for a few months, we felt confident that we had a product people liked and that we could take to retail customers.”

In August 2008, I Love Pies made its way into their first retail store, Farro. A month later, nine more stockists had come on board. Today, over 50 stores around the north island stock I Love Pies.

“The markets will always be our truest voice. We’re there selling them to hear what people say as opposed to a retail store where it sits on the shelves and who knows what they think about it?”
www.ilovepies.com

Do you have a product to sell at your local market? Do you want to take your service to the next level and start a business? Is there a need for a market in your community?

Find more information at www.farmersmarkets.org.nz or visit your local council website.