Farmers Markets Must-Haves
As a new start-up business, we’re always looking for high quality equipment that doesn’t break the bank. Here are some of our favorites. We really do think through every single purchase, so are excited to highlight these few. They have saved us a considerable amount of time and stress. Full disclosure, as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
1. Crown Shades Canopy
I am starting off with this incredible canopy. After extensive research, we decided to use Crown Shades for the ease of setting up. Reddit told us that ONE singular person could set it up. That holds true! Once, my partner had to run to the kitchen to grab something we forgot. I was a nervous wreck, already imagining having to ask vendor neighbors for help. But to my surprise, I rolled the canopy out of my car and set the tent ALL BY MYSELF. This has happened a few more times since, and each time, it only takes me about 10 minutes to set up.
2. Lights
We love our night markets, but they do require extra set-up. While our night market are fairly lit already, we find that these lights help attract customers to our booth and give our crème brûlées the spotlight that they deserve. They have lasted us the entire four hours and are more than bright enough. I love that they are easy to install. We just stick them on to our canopy poles on all four corners because they are magnetic!
3. Chalkboard
The chalkboard is a great way to feature our crème brûlée flavors of the week. There was one very, very windy day. All of the nearby chalkboards blew over one by one, but ours didn’t! There are a lot of reviews on it being bad outdoors, but I’d say otherwise. Also, it’s such a breeze drawing on it. It has definitely drawn attention to our booth, as many customers stop by and gawk at it before buying some!
4. Chalkboard markers
At first, I tried to use sidewalk chalk, which was a cheaper alternative. I just grabbed the generic chalk markers at Target. BUT, they never looked good. It would take me twice the amount of time to write the items down, yet look so sloppy! The chalk markers were an insane upgrade. Instead of working on the chalk board a night before the market, I was able to finish at the market. There are so many colors to choose from, and the vibrancy of them help grab customers’ attention.
5. Letter board
Before the letter board, I was writing our menu each time by hand to update the flavors of the day. Not only did this look unprofessional, I was never happy with the result. Not to mention how time consuming it really was. Similar to the chalkboard, I was always stressed putting it together the day before or the night of. I eventually started printing out the menus and placing them in acrylic holders, which felt wasteful and also time consuming. I remember one day when the printer didn’t work and I felt like the world was ending. So glad I bit the bullet and purchased this letter board. It really isn’t even expensive, we just had a tight budget starting out. I wish I purchased sooner!
6. Labels
These labels are so good! They are waterproof and glossy. We print them at home with our Canon printer. However, I’d say we got fairly lucky because my home printer refused to take the label sheets. The images would come out distorted or simply jam my HP inkjet printer. My partner’s printer worked much better and has been great since. We had to do a lot of trouble shooting though because for some reason, black and white printing was a mess. It only creates clean labels if we do colored printing for some reason.
7. Selfie Stick/Tripod
For the longest time, I struggled to make content. I was never a social media person, and it was always so unflattering to film myself by just extending out my arm in selfie-mode. The tripod was night and day for creating content. The first ever video I filmed with it was in the commercial kitchen. I was easily able to film different angles and the process. I also love the remote that it comes with…as opposed to how I used to set 10 second timers and run back to my spot.
8. Wooden Display
We use this wooden display to feature our crème brûlées. It adds height, especially to our catering cart. Customers are able to compare and contrast our mini and regular crème brûlée sizes. It acts as both a decorative feature as well as something incredibly functional! I’m a fan of ours because of how sturdy it is, and how we can take it apart to fix into our boxes. Additionally, at one of our markets, some woodworker stopped by our booth to admire it.
9. Kraft Paper Bags
When customers ask for a bag, we are proud to give them sleek ones that are also biodegradable. The brown looks effortlessly classy and has a quality feel to it.
10. Dolly
There is a health department requirement that our cooler must be 6 inches off the ground. So! As a new business, we decided we would just use what we had already. This meant bringing a third table to put the cooler on. After many markets, we finally decided to look into what our neighbor vendors all had. A dolly! This was a life-changing investment. Without a third table, we are able to quickly set-up. In addition, our backs don’t feel like they’re breaking while transporting the cooler full of ice during set-up AND clean-up.
11. Spandex Table Clothes
This was a recent addition to our set-up. We are so happy that we decided to switch to these spandex table clothes! Before that, we were using ones I had just found at home. They were always wrinkly, getting dirty, and just blowing around in the wind. They did not fit right. However, these attach down at the legs of the tables and they look great!