Really? Sounds like a terrible farmer’s market, I’ve usually found much fresher food generally below grocery store prices, rarely higher. With the exception of chicken and eggs, but there’s reasons for that
I’ve never been to a farmers market that didn’t have an outrageous mark up. Street markets in developing nations are certainly often cheaper. But anything claiming to be a “farmer’s market” - no.
It really seems to.depend on your area and what the products are. The veggies at my local farmers market are super reasonable, while the meat is quite pricey. Of course, the meat is being raised in much more sustainable fashion vs large scale meat packing operations, so it genuinely costs more to produce
Yeah, the actual street/wet/flea markets are the ones that are cheaper than grocery stores and real farmer’s markets operate like them. The problem is “Farmer’s markets” have been commercialized in a lot of places that they’re basically a rich people thing where you can buy “fresh” produce that isn’t in the grocery store that commoners use.
My experience has been, I go to a random parking lot somewhere on Saturday morning, there’s like 15 stands selling huge fresh produce with prices like 4 for $1, and then there’s a guy with pigs selling entire fractions of animals for what I assume was a good price
I’ve heard of ones that sound more like county fairs with admission prices and massage booths and such… It kinda seems like at that point they’ve lost the plot
Maybe your farmers markets aren’t just simple direct sales. Do they have to pay real money to set up their stalls? Or worse, is there a bidding process?
In my part of the US, if you go to the cheapest grocery store with the cheapest produce, then you will get better prices than the farmer’s market. But it’s very sad depressing produce. Mealy, grainy apples, banged up squash, etc.
If you go to a standard middle of the road supermarket you’ll get meh produce for slightly less than the farmer’s market. If you go to Costco you’ll get a shitton of meh to decent produce for what you would have spent on a normal amount of food at the regular grocery.
High end grocers have similar prices and quality as the farmer’s markets. The fancy grocers have out of season imported stuff at a high price.
Some Asian grocers have really good deals on really fresh produce, but they don’t have much organic stuff.
The farmer’s markets have really amazing selection and variety within the scope of what is local and in season. There’s a dude with over a dozen varieties of potatoes. There’s a mushroom seller with like 4-5 different kinds of oyster mushrooms. There’s a stand that just sells foraged stuff that you almost never see in grocery stores. The meat and fish are much more expensive but small producers can’t possibly compete with factory farms on that stuff.
Really? Sounds like a terrible farmer’s market, I’ve usually found much fresher food generally below grocery store prices, rarely higher. With the exception of chicken and eggs, but there’s reasons for that
I’ve never been to a farmers market that didn’t have an outrageous mark up. Street markets in developing nations are certainly often cheaper. But anything claiming to be a “farmer’s market” - no.
It really seems to.depend on your area and what the products are. The veggies at my local farmers market are super reasonable, while the meat is quite pricey. Of course, the meat is being raised in much more sustainable fashion vs large scale meat packing operations, so it genuinely costs more to produce
Yeah, the actual street/wet/flea markets are the ones that are cheaper than grocery stores and real farmer’s markets operate like them. The problem is “Farmer’s markets” have been commercialized in a lot of places that they’re basically a rich people thing where you can buy “fresh” produce that isn’t in the grocery store that commoners use.
My experience has been, I go to a random parking lot somewhere on Saturday morning, there’s like 15 stands selling huge fresh produce with prices like 4 for $1, and then there’s a guy with pigs selling entire fractions of animals for what I assume was a good price
I’ve heard of ones that sound more like county fairs with admission prices and massage booths and such… It kinda seems like at that point they’ve lost the plot
Maybe your farmers markets aren’t just simple direct sales. Do they have to pay real money to set up their stalls? Or worse, is there a bidding process?
Maybe someone is siphoning money there
In my part of the US, if you go to the cheapest grocery store with the cheapest produce, then you will get better prices than the farmer’s market. But it’s very sad depressing produce. Mealy, grainy apples, banged up squash, etc.
If you go to a standard middle of the road supermarket you’ll get meh produce for slightly less than the farmer’s market. If you go to Costco you’ll get a shitton of meh to decent produce for what you would have spent on a normal amount of food at the regular grocery.
High end grocers have similar prices and quality as the farmer’s markets. The fancy grocers have out of season imported stuff at a high price.
Some Asian grocers have really good deals on really fresh produce, but they don’t have much organic stuff.
The farmer’s markets have really amazing selection and variety within the scope of what is local and in season. There’s a dude with over a dozen varieties of potatoes. There’s a mushroom seller with like 4-5 different kinds of oyster mushrooms. There’s a stand that just sells foraged stuff that you almost never see in grocery stores. The meat and fish are much more expensive but small producers can’t possibly compete with factory farms on that stuff.