Withthe seasonal opening of the Saturday morning, open-air Main Street FarmersMarket now postponed until May 16, the affiliated, online Statesboro Market2Go,which operates year-round, has been modified to provide a drive-up service thatasks customers to remain in their cars.
Inits first week operating in this new mode, the Market2Go saw its orders, whichhad hovered just over $1,000 a week, quadruple. Then, in its second week,orders fulfilled during Thursday afternoon’s extended three-hour pick-up timereached $10,500, roughly ten times Market2Go’s typical past weekly average.
Ofcourse, the germ of the transformation, quite literally, was COVID-19. Withdemands for social distancing, farmers market planners faced hints that theyshould simply cancel the in-person seasonal market.
“Wewere trying to figure out the best way to keep the market open but keep it safefor everyone,” said Becky Davis, executive director of the StatesboroConvention and Visitors Bureau, or SCVB.
Thesolution emerged from a conversation between Davis and Main Street FarmersMarket Manager Relinda Walker. The Farmers Market officially operates underDowntown Statesboro Development Authority oversight, but the SCVBhas handled the market’s publicity efforts for the past two years, and sinceFebruary 2019 has also hosted Market2Go’sdelivery of produce for customer pick-up each Thursday.
Untiltwo weeks ago, customers went inside the building to pick up their purchases.When Walker and others involved looked at farmers markets statewide, they foundthat some were simply closing.
“Othershave found modified procedures or venues so that they continue and they use theidea of claiming essential services,” Walker said. “But when we looked at oursituation, we felt that we could better provide that service through ourMarket2Go, so we immediately set about modifying that process and getting intouch with our vendors and then later, with Becky’s help, getting the word outto customers.”
Theresult has been a curbside loading system that this week had about 180customers – more than triple the average on past pick-up evenings – drivethrough the SCVB parking lot and around the building between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
“We’vehad a great response from our vendors,” Walker said. “They are coming up withmore products; we’ve got more vendors on.”
How it works
Thelist of 50 participating “growers” can be found at statesboromarket2go.locallygrown.net.Fresh vegetables are part of what’s offered, but other products range from meatbutchered locally and shrimp caught along the coast to baked goods, dairyproducts and artisan-made candles.
Shopperssign up to create an account. Then they select from the vendors’ lists, nowtotaling more than 500 items, and place orders between 8 p.m. Friday andmidnight Tuesday. Vendors deliver the products to the pick-up site Thursday.
Withthe new process, customers are emailed an hour when the market management wouldprefer that they pick up the order, either 4-5 p.m., 5-6 p.m. or 6-7 p.m. Thisis an attempt to spread out the traffic and the workload.
Walkergreets customers at the ramp behind the Visitors Center, which is at 222 SouthMain St. and otherwise currently closed to the public. She asks the name of theperson who placed the order, and relays it to farmers market employees insidethe building, who bring out the ordered items.
Customersare asked not to get out of their cars, but to open the trunk or a back doorfor the market workers to place the items in the vehicle. A few drivers thisweek held up their names on a piece of paper rather than open the window.
Theproduce runners wash their hands between orders at sinks in the back of theVisitors Center, which was once a restaurant. But they do not wear gloves.Market2Go Coordinator Michelle Giddens explained why, citing the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention. Basically, the idea is that dirty gloves are nobetter than dirty hands.
“Ifwe used gloves, we would have to change gloves after each customer, which wouldbe a lot of gloves to use when the hospital might need them,” Giddens said. “TheCDC says handwashing is best, so we’re handwashing after each customer orwhenever we touch anything that doesn’t belong to that customer. If we get newinformation, we’ll change to it, but that’s the recommendation right now.”
Help to farmers
Thenew bloom in the online market is providing an outlet for vendors who have lostthe opportunity of the in-person market, which originally would have openednext Saturday, April 4.
It’seven more of a ray of light in an otherwise bleak situation for somespecialized farmers. Southern Swiss Dairy, near Waynesboro, produces a range ofpasteurized, but non-hom*ogenized, milk from naturally fed cattle, and alsobuttermilk, cream, ice cream and beef.
JimmyFranks and his wife and other family members operate the dairy, currentlymilking about 180 cows. With the colleges and universities now switching toonline courses and restaurants either closed or reduced to drive-thru anddelivery options, Southern Swiss’ overall sales have plummeted 80% and maybemore, Franks said.
“Wedid Emory University, we did Savannah College of Art and Design, and all ofthat’s closed, and we did a lot of restaurants,” he said. “That’s where most ofour business was, and basically it’s gone to nothing now.”
Dairyfarmers cannot stop milking their cows, seven days a week, he explained. SouthernSwiss could sell milk it has no market for to a dairy co-op, but at greatlyreduced prices. The co-op would collect the milk in a tanker truck, not sell itin Southern Swiss bottles.
Butwhile still a small portion of the dairy’s usual sales, Statesboro Market2Go ordersfor Southern Swiss products were up by 400% this week.
“It’sreally picked up the last two weeks, and we also do one in Augusta that’sreally picked up,” Franks said. “I guess with the virus and everything, as longas everybody can just pick up and not go in the store and risk getting exposed,it’s just a win-win for everybody.”
The Augusta Locally Grown market that hementioned operates similarly to Market2Go.
Customer’sview
“Win-win” was also a description used by arelatively new Market2Go customer, Julie McCracken, in a phone interviewFriday. She had shopped some at the in-person market last season, but joinedthe online market a little over a month ago, before the recent change inprocedure.
Now she has become a convert, limiting hergrocery store shopping to one visit each week to Aldi’s for things she cannot findthrough the online farm market.
“Buying at the farmers market … it’s a win-win,” McCrackensaid. “Itsupports our community businesses, and we’re getting really high-qualityproduce. It’s local, so it’s going to taste better.”
Thisweek she ordered and picked up some B&J Farms chicken, some Hunter CattleCompany pork, Southern Swiss Dairy wholemilk and whipping cream and, from area vegetable growers, fresh spinach, kale, tomatoes andcarrots.
Sheshops for a family of four, also including her husband Dr. Mark McCracken andtheir two children, now young adults, one of whom is just back home fromcollege. Dr. McCracken was one of the physicians who recently wrote to localofficials and spoke to Statesboro City Council urging greater precautions duringthe COVID-19 pandemic.
JulieMcCracken approved of what she saw of Market2Go’s new approach.
“Withthe crowds, I know that it’s hard work for everybody that’s working the pickup,but the crowds are showing, I think, that everybody is trying their best to ‘A,’support the community, and ‘B,’ they are trying to maintain that socialdistance,” she said. “It’s just goodoverall, for everybody.”
Traffic question
Traffic could become an issue if the market’s popularitycontinues to grow. Despite the effort to stagger pick-up times through analphabetical assignment, more customers arrived in the middle hour Thursday,when up to four cars at a time waited to turn in from South Main Street.
One person reported a 45-minute wait, Walker said, but sheadded that 15 minutes was typical.
“Wewill probably be trying to come up with a creative solution,” she said.
Market2Goalso has a Sylvania pick-up site, now outside the Victory Garden General Store, 5-5:45 p.m. each Thursday, andoffers Statesboro and Bulloch County home delivery for an added fee.
