Evaluating Your Market

There are several possible ways to do a formal assessment of your market. You may, of course, hire a consultant. By the time you explain your community and your market to him/her, you might be able to do a pretty thorough job yourself. Using market members and a couple of folks from a nearby market, your market can use a method called Rapid Market Assessment.There are three parts to this method.

Attendance Counts

It is hard to plan events, obtain grant monies, measure the need for more vendors, and more when you have no idea how many customers your market draws each market day. Designating someone to count every person can be difficult. The rapid market assessment method suggests placing spotters at each entrance way to the market and having them count customers for 10 minutes each hour and then multiply this number by six. The numbers will be nearly as accurate as a full count and certainly be easier. Accuracy depends on both planning and personnel.

Tips for this part of the assessment:

• Count everyone entering the market in a 10-minute period each hour and multiply by six to give hourly estimates.
• Record each hour’s attendance separately so the market can know its busiest time.
• Establish clear communication between counters.
• Count only adults entering the market.
• Do counts on at least two days before decisions are based on the numbers.

Additional Resources:

Attendance Count Worksheet Template: download below

Dot Surveys

An easy way to get information from customers is to ask a few questions with dot surveys. Shoppers are generally more willing to participate in this type of informal survey than they they are to take the time for a one-on-one survey involving clipboards. 


To conduct a dot survey, set up 2-5 posters with questions and give shoppers stick-on dots to indicate their answer. If obtaining an estimate of market day sales is important, you will need to include the following questions:

• 
How much did you/will you spend at the farmers market today?
• 
How many adults are in your shopping party today?

Tips for this part of the assessment:

• Make the question clear and simple.
• Give customers only as many dots as there are questions.
• Color code the dots according to either a demographic (woman vs. man) or the hour the customer came to the market.
• Affix the posters to something strong and sturdy
• Set up a table nearby for customers to set their bags, purses, etc. down so they can use their stickers.
• Have someone invite customers to participate, hand out stickers, and answer questions.

Additional Resources:

Selected Dot Survey Questions: download below

Constructive Comments and Observations

This last part is the hardest. If your market is serious about making changes and has an open mind about what might need to be done, this one can be the most helpful. You invite members of another market, business people, or another group familiar with farmers’ markets to come to your market and critique what they see.

You ask them to comment on:

• Physical characteristics of the market
• Vendor diversity and product selection
• Market atmosphere
• Safety considerations
• Anything else the market is interested in

After the team visit, the team gets together to decide the most important message to the market. One person then prepares a report and talks with the market board. If you find yourself giving excuses or being defensive, then you won’t get much from this exercise. If you can take the opportunity to “see” the market like others see it, this exercise will prove to be the most powerful.

Tips for this part of the assessment:

• Recruit 3-6 volunteers to assist. Part of their time will be spend with customer counts and assisting with the dot survey, and their remaining time can be devoted to comments and observations.
• Provide each team member with a clipboard holding copies of each of the worksheets.

Additional Resources:
The following rapid market assessment worksheets are available for download below:

• Market Atmosphere
• Physical Characteristics
• Market Vendors and Products

Rapid Market Assessment Reports for Kansas farmers markets are available at left under Assessment.

For a more in-depth explanation of the RMA method, download the Tools for Rapid Market Assessments here.

Please let mercedes [dot] taylorpuckett [at] gmail [dot] com (Mercedes) know if you are planning a RMA at your market. She may be able to participate or assist in recruiting volunteers.