So today I visited a Farmers’ Market for the first time to see how the prices are in comparison to items you would buy at a store. While I haven’t had a chance to go to an actual farm yet to see the cost of buying the items that way, I figured this would be something semi related.
The location for this one was pretty convenient for me as it was actually around my area and so I had a nice walk. There were these signs along the blocks to show you that you were going the right way.
Eventually, I saw a bunch of tents lined up with vendors from a distance.
There were a lot of people I thought for a market event like this. I thought initially it would just be a handful of people who are regulars to it or are say very picky about getting items that are locally grown and produced.
As you may have guessed, there was pretty much vendor after vendor of grocery items available with some people even creating their own packaged items like juices and dehydrated foods.
The prices were definitely on the high side I thought such as seeing a price of about $2.50 per pound for carrots and $1.25 a pound for apples. As an example, the average price I see at stores is about 69 cents a pound for carrots and about 79 cents a pound for apples. Of course, the main selling point was that every vendor advertised their products as being organic.
Although, sometimes these types of points didn’t really click with me too much such as a vendor selling whole walnuts that are still in its shell and saying how it has all been washed and grown to avoid toxins. Like with that, I don’t see too much of a difference since you still have to break through the shell to get to the item in the first place.
Overall, this type of market seems to be a paradise for people who live and swear by organic food it seems as you are definitely paying a premium price for what you buy. At the same time, many of the items seem like it is better to buy at a store as I even overheard one farmer on how he usually sells to companies wholesale only. Hence, they get a better deal and can probably sell it to you for less than what you can buy it for at this event at a consumer volume.
I had a fun quick tour though. I definitely didn’t expect rock bottom prices like what I hope to see when I get the chance to go to an actual farm and see the deals you can get that way, but in general it’s too bad that the prices wasn’t at least the same or very close to the ones you could get at the supermarket.
One strange thing when I visited the event was this sign:
Need I say more?