Early Saturday mornings, as the sun begins to climb into the sky, dozens of vehicles filled to the brim with goods pull into the Carrboro Town Commons. Unlike many other aspects of our lives, this is one pattern from the pre-COVID era that has remained virtually unchanged.
Stalls and tables are thrown up, produce neatly arranged and vendors prepare for a busy morning ahead. Even with the limitations of going out in a pandemic, business still booms.
Howard Allen from Faithfull Farms noted that people seem to be trying to eat healthier and are cooking at home and buying more vegetables.
“In March, which is typically our slowest month of the year, we actually had our record profits of all time,” Allen said. “There’s more new customers so actually higher sales than before.”
Allen sells organic fruits and vegetables at the Carrboro Farmers Market, which typically features around 40 other vendors like him–people from small, local businesses. From produce to pottery, bouquets to bakeries, every Wednesday and Saturday the center of Carrboro comes alive.
While many people avoid grocery shopping and other indoor options, they still need to buy food. Outdoor markets seem to be a popular option for an increasing number of customers.
“It’s our best year, ever,” said Kevin Meehan from Turtle Run Farm. “It’s funny. I’ll fold up [my stand] and go grab a beer from the Food Lion, and there are three cars in the parking lot. There’ll be 800 trucks here.”
The Carrboro market has not only provided farmers the opportunity to continue selling their products, but also crafters and artisans. Some markets have had to prioritize food vendors over others in terms of space and customer attention because of limitations with COVID-19.
Sue Johnson began selling hand-woven baskets at the Carrboro market once the pandemic began disrupting normal life.
“Most farmers markets don’t consider crafters as farmers,” Johnson said. “But here in Carrboro, they do. I came in March. It was wonderful. They were like, come on. And I did.”
With more business are more customers, so the Market has adjusted its layout and practices so that it will be safe for everyone.
“We’ve been communicating a lot with local organizations, the county health department and the town,” said Maggie Funkhouser, the market manager. “Before, the vendors were all under the commons, right next to each other. Now, they’re anywhere from 10 to 20 feet apart, and they moved into the parking lot.”
Other implemented safety precautions include a one-way flow of traffic, mask-wearing policies, detailed signage for lines and periodic counting of customers. When the pandemic began, the Town of Carrboro Parks and Recreation Department hired many workers to enforce these policies.
Senior Patrick Apel works at the Market on Saturdays.
“Every half hour, we do a customer count throughout the market. If there’s too many people, we’ll start lining them up outside and letting them in one by one.”
The Farmers Market is open from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday mornings, and usually starts to fill up around 10 a.m.. Before then, customers enter the market through a designated entry and are free to spend as much time as they want inside.
Many vendors have also taken their own measures to ensure safety. Jeremy Pinkham sells fresh sweet potato cake doughnuts from his stall, called Yee Haw Doughnuts (based in Saxapahaw).
“One major thing is people come to get a hot treat from here,” said Pinkham. “So we have to encourage people to not eat immediately on site, so they’re not all eating around in public.”
Pinkham and other vendors, like Meehan, have also changed some practices around payment. To minimize back-and-forth handling of money, Pinkham set out a cash basket so people can just leave cash or find change on their own. He also added Venmo as a payment option.
Meehan developed a similar no-touch change system, where specific amounts of change are pre-loaded into envelopes and customers leave their cash in a box. In addition, he adjusted his method of pricing so that instead of selling each product by weight, items are priced by each in whole-dollar amounts.
Most customers say they feel safe and assured with the new safety measures.
“For a while, I didn’t come here. But then I saw on Facebook all the measures that were taken to make everything safe,” a long-time customer at the market said. “The food is good. It’s safer than the grocery store. It’s something I terribly missed. It’s one of those things that make life seem more normal.”
For buyers and sellers alike, the Carrboro Farmers Market has been an important constant in a changing world.
“It’s just a strong market. It’s always been strong,” Meehan said. “Nothing can faze it. People got to eat. As long as people get to eat, we’re going to be selling.”
