Testing New Ideas at a Farm Market

Vendors and managers from the Lewes Farmers Market in Lewes, Delaware, composed a case study to answer the question "What can we do to increase sales and attendance at our market?" They decided to start a "living lab" to investigate what was working and what wasn't at their market. The lab would test ideas to increase attendance and sales.

The market, fortunately, started from the beginning of operation with a wealth of data that they could compare to recent sales. This included:

• total attendance
• total sales
• sales for each market stand
• number of SNAP customers
• number of new SNAP customers
• total SNAP $ issued
• total SNAP $ redeemed
• total SNAP matching $ issued
• total SNAP matching $ redeemed

From this beginning data, the vendors and managers could test each new marketing idea and compare it.