I finally decided on making the Blue Myrtle House an indoor Farmers Market and Coffee Bar. Thank you to all who participated in our poll.
Over the past couple of years I've been to numerous weekend farmers markets. If you've never been to a farmers market I recommend visiting the Phoenix Public Market. Although the Phoenix Public Market is no Des Moines Downtown Farmers Market it is one of the best in the area.
One of the things I kept hearing from the vendors at these events is how they are trying to get their products into the big grocery stores. I guess what they are saying is that they want to be able to have their items available to as many consumers as possible 7 days a week. The reality is that they are micro businesses compared to the companies that have products in the big grocers. The farmer market (micro business) vendor has a difficult time getting their items on the shelves of the big grocery stores. The truth is that if they were on the shelves of a state or national grocery chain they wouldn't be renting a booth at a weekend farmers market.
That's where the Blue Myrtle House comes in. The Blue Myrtle House is a micro version of Sprouts. We are a micro business giving other micro businesses the opportunity to make their products available 6 days a week.
I know that it's not enough just to have a place to have products available, people have to know about the Blue Myrtle House and vendor's products. One of the easiest most cost effective ways of doing this is by word of mouth. The more mouths the more words. In other words; get as many people as possible talking about your product. Two of the best ways of telling friends and friends of friends about what you are selling is by posting it on Facebook or Twitter. By talking about your product and telling people where they can buy it not only helps you but other people who are selling products at the Blue Myrtle House. You don't have to have a Facebook business page, you can do it from your own personal page. And you don't have to do it all the time. Letting friends and family know from time to time is plenty. Imagine a bunch of vendors selling at the Blue Myrtle House just occasionally telling their friends and family about their products. Together we could start a revolution! Micro-biz, micro-biz, micro-biz! Sorry, got carried away there for a moment.
I'm not officially taking vendor applications at this time, but you are welcome to tell me and others about your product by filling out the form at the bottom of this blog entry; Click Here.
