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Farmer’s Market customers will have one less day to shop for the time being.
The city has decided to pause its Thursday market for January and February.
According to Lori Mambella, the city’s manager of programs and culture services, the decision was made in consultation with some vendors.
“The January and February market days tend to be slower in terms of customer traffic,” Mambella said. “While the vendors look forward to seeing all of their customers on Saturday, the pause will provide them an opportunity to take some time to enjoy time off, or some time with their families, ahead of the new harvest season.”
Tom Neufeld is the chair of the vendor association, and said the decision was sensible.
“Things are slow in the winter,” he said. “Saturdays are still a pretty good day. It’s always the premier marquee event with the farmer’s market. So, in summer when farmers have stuff coming out and strawberries, asparagus, etc., you know, it’s a good idea to be there twice a week. Thursday and Saturday work well. But in winter I only come on Saturday because Thursdays are the doldrums.”
Neufeld Family Farms is the longest serving vendor at the market, having started in 1932. Tom said he’s been working at their booth since he was six years old.
As this will be the first time they’re trying one day a week, Neufeld calls it “a bit of a pilot project.”
“We’ll see how that feels and how that works,” he said.
“It’s a very rational decision in terms of traffic,” he said. “It’s hard to have the market have significance during the week when you’re missing a vast number of vendors. It’s another reason why it makes sense, I think, to take a hiatus for a couple of months here.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, the city discontinued the Tuesday market to focus on Saturdays.
“We wanted to focus our efforts through the pandemic recovery on making the market experience the best it can be for our vendors and our customers given the restrictions,” she said. “While we slowly evolved to reopening on Thursdays, we opted to remain with just the two days a week — especially with some downtown businesses remaining remote work instead of completely returning to offices.”
According to Neufeld, the three days a week model worked for the city pre-pandemic, but it’s not necessary anymore.
“In the old days, three times a week made sense, but nobody does that anymore in terms of having to use a farmer’s market three times a week,” he said. “So twice a week is about right for St. Catharines.”
While not everyone may be on board the decision to cut back, Neufeld said not to worry.
“This is just a little bump in the road,” he said. “We’ll be back.”
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St. Catharines temporarily pauses Thursday Farmers' Markets – St. Catharines Standard
