Farmers' market to again try Saturdays

The downtown Clearwater market is trying to boost business. It will remain

By EILEEN SCHULTE
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 3, 2002

CLEARWATER -- They've tried switching days, changing locations and offering guitar music and singers. They even have an annual Super Soup Day and flew a banner over Court Street.

Despite the moves, few people have come to shop for the produce and cheese at the Downtown Clearwater Farmer's Market.

"We don't know why," said Bob Fernandez, general manager of the market.

Now organizers are trying one more tactic to attract shoppers: two days of markets every week.

Starting Saturday, the market will be open every Saturday through April 17, the way it used to.

The market will stay open on Wednesdays, the day it was moved to this year to draw hungry downtown employees and boost sales. Fernandez, a former grocery store executive, has simply added another day to the schedule, the same day it has been running for the past six years.

About two weeks ago, the city gave the nonprofit Saturday in the City Inc., led by Fernandez's wife, Pat, permission to hold the market Saturdays on a grass lot at Pierce Street and East Avenue, next to the Police Department building.

Fernandez said winter residents and retirees called and wrote to say they missed their Saturday market. Some even walked up to him during the Wednesday market and complained about its being moved to Wednesdays.

"Some of these people came for coffee and listened to music" for the past six years, Fernandez said. "They said, 'We're here and we want it on Saturdays.'

"It's back by popular demand," Fernandez said.

The green market -- which sells fresh fruit, produce, cheese, plants and handmade crafts -- has never drawn an abundance of shoppers because people who work or live downtown do not support it, Fernandez said.

Even moving to Wednesdays didn't help much, even though Fernandez's independent research concluded that weekday farmers' markets do better than weekend markets.

"Wednesdays have been fairly slow," Fernandez said. "But the market doesn't pick up until after the holidays."

That's when the snowbirds get here, and they "are a good percentage of our clientele," he said.

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