The last outdoor farmers market of the season wrapped up in Williams Lake at Kiwanis Park on Friday with customer appreciation day.
Market manager Jane Bowser said they had a good turnout and that overall it’s been a really good year.
“It was a move to a new location and we were a bit apprehensive about how that would be, but I think we’ve seen a huge spike in customer traffic. We have a lot more parking so we can have a lot more customers come through,” Bowser said.
“We had lots more vendors too. I think we started the season with around 20 vendors which is a new high and it’s been pretty constant throughout. On the days when it snowed it was down to 17, but up to 40 on some of the summer weeks.”
Bowser adds that they are already thinking ahead to next year’s market.
“We did get our electrical outlets, I think they were about a week late but other than that it’s been really good. We’ve been able to have our sound system play and people needing electricity were able to plug in and our food vendors had a lot more opportunity to expand what they could provide,” she said.
“As for storage, we have just spoken with city Council so we’ll probably in the future months be buying a shed and doing it up so that we can have it in the summer months semi-permanent on the market site which is pretty exciting.”
Council will be giving further consideration on Tuesday to approve in principle the Farmer’s Market request to place a shed at the site.
“We’re also looking at a program by BC where they give out grants to farmer markets and other types of things like that to help expand,” Bowser says.
“We’re looking to get some funding for some more signs and advertising in the future.”