Lafayette’s latest farmers market reset, relocated this summer deeper into the city’s funky Old Town quarter just a year after its revival, may again be showing signs of waning interest.
A handful of vendors that have operated Lafayette markets in years past and neighboring events across the county say the city’s revenue and attendance is down from last year’s haul, to varying degrees.
The event’s new location along the 400 block of East Simpson Street is ideal, at least on paper, for locals to arrive en masse, though vendors say an answer as to why crowds have been slow to materialize has proven frustratingly elusive.
This summer’s particularly harsh temperatures may be keeping the bulk of residents inside and away in the afternoon hours, some suggest; others point to the event’s new digs, which sit along another well traveled thoroughfare, though one less likely to reveal itself to the casual passersby.
Others speculate that Lafayette’s thinning numbers may be due in part to neighboring competition. Apart from the main attractions in Boulder and Longmont on the weekends, the city shares its Thursday timeslot with a farmers market minutes down the road in Erie, a well-established event run by management independent of neighboring Boulder County markets.
That town’s long-running market has consistently drawn crowds, say some vendors who suggest that Lafayette residents, absent a fixed market of their own, may be venturing outside city limits to source their local wares.
The legwork required to work a market event for vendors like the Post Brewing Company, which often involves additional staff outside of regular restaurant detail, leaves less room for losses. Event profits under the best of circumstances are often negligible for businesses as large as the Post, says Sarah Ingraham, a general manager for the Lafayette-born brewpub, and waning sales are enough for operators to reconsider whether the effort is really worth it.
“We want it to be successful, but with all the setup and stuff we have to do for the event, it’s just hard to make it all work,” Ingraham said Thursday. “And if we’re making just a couple hundred bucks it’s not really worth it.
“For us,” Ingraham added, “it’s just kinda starting to stop making sense.”
The event’s return under new management last year had several things going for it: along with the initial fanfare following the 2016 season hiatus, the event also touted an incentive program for participating farmers that was funded by the Founding Members Program, where residents could become supporters of the market through a membership.
Parking and accessibility logistics forced officials to scuttle its 600 S. Public Road site only months before this summer season; from 2013-2015, the market operated behind Jax Mercantile on U.S. 287, before waning sales forced officials to abandon the subsequent season.
It’s unclear if organizers keep any records to back up a consensus among vendors that the event is indeed faltering, though several estimates place attendance between 300 and 400 people on a given Thursday during the market’s four-hour window.
Representatives for the Boulder County Farmers Market, the non-profit responsible for the Lafayette market’s 2017 return, could not be reached for comment.
Boulder Beef owner Jen Melichar approximates that on a given Lafayette market run she may make around $250; in Longmont, where she works the weekend markets, she will often fetch upwards of six-times that, she says.
“The vendors all talk amongst ourselves and there’s definitely been a decline for everyone,” Alejandro Rodriguez, co-owner of Summit Tacos, said Thursday. “We still enjoy doing it and hopefully it will manage to continue. We’re still in the middle of the season, but hopefully if the venue doesn’t change again we will see an increase.”
Despite the losses, Rodriguez says that for a smaller operator like Summit, the exposure granted by his place in Lafayette’s market is often worth the effort, bringing new customers to call on him for private events and catering later on.
“We may not go home with the money we thought we’d make that day” he said, “but being in the community brings people back to our business.”
It’s unclear what the future holds for the Lafayette market, or if organizers have plans to relocate again if sales continue to slump; city officials on Thursday directed questions about the market to BCFM.
At a City Council meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Christine Berg urged residents to support the market. “We really need your help to get the word out about the farmers market, it’s a really lovely market and we need our numbers to continue to be on the rise.
“If we want the market to survive and thrive we need more people to go and spend money.”
Anthony Hahn: 303-473-1422, hahna@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/_anthonyhahn