2008 Survey and Visitor count
A Visitor count and survey were done at the Grand Rapids Farmers’ Market on August 23, 2008.
Here are the results:
Clicker counts: These were done for 15 minutes out of every hour, from 8:15 to 8:30, etc.
The table shows the number of people who came in at each entrance during those 15 minutes. We multiply that by 4 to get an estimate of the number of people per hour.
| Entrance | Total x 4 = | ||||
| Hour | East | Middle | West | Total | Hour total |
| 8 to 9 am | 11 | 7 | 11 | 29 | 126 |
| 9 to 10 am | 19 | 8 | 23 | 50 | 200 |
| 10 to 11 am | 19 | 8 | 33 | 60 | 240 |
| 11 am - noon | 26 | 11 | 38 | 75 | 300 |
| Noon - 1 pm | 9 | 8 | 30 | 47 | 188 |
| TOTALS | 84 | 42 | 135 | 261 | 1054 |
| Percentages | 32% | 16% | 52% |
Wow! 1,054 people through the market! These are great numbers. Looking at the entrances, you can see that the west entrance was the highest volume. Some of the people coming through the east entrance were coming from the parking lot to the south of the market area, but also a lot of people coming through that entrance were walking in from the north - meaning that that east entrance is probably taking in most of the people who are doing other downtown shopping.
Dot Survey Questions
1. Today is the 33rd farmers’ market day of the season. How often have you visited the market this year?
| Answer | 8 to 10:30 am | 10:30 am to 1 pm | Total | Percentage |
| First time | 16 | 36 | 52 | 33% |
| 2 to 5 times | 34 | 24 | 58 | 37% |
| 6 to 10 times | 25 | 11 | 36 | 23% |
| 11 to 20 times | 7 | 1 | 8 | 5% |
| More than 20 times | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2% |
| TOTAL | 85 | 73 | 158 |
Comments: The majority of people are visiting fewer than 1/3 of the market days, and about one third of the visitors are visiting for the first time. That means that the total number of different people visiting the market over the course of the season could be more than 10,000.
- 33% first time x 1054 people = 348 x 33 markets = 9900 people
- 37% two to five visits x 1054 people = 390 x (33/5) = 2574 people
- 23% six to ten visits x 1054 people = 242 x (33/10) = 799 people
- Total unique visitors to market, estimate: 9900 + 2574 + 799 = 13,273 people
– But it’s probably not actually as high as 13,000 unique visitors because there aren’t 1000 people through the market every time.
2. About how much will you spend (or have you spent) at the market today?
| Answer | 8 to 10:30 am | 10:30 am to 1 pm | Total | Percentage |
| $0 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 4 % |
| $5 | 6 | 14 | 20 | 13 % |
| $10 | 20 | 20 | 40 | 25 % |
| $15 | 20 | 11 | 31 | 20 % |
| $20 | 23 | 14 | 37 | 23 % |
| $30 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 9 % |
| $40 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 3 % |
| More than $40 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 3 % |
| TOTAL | 84 | 74 | 158 |
Comments: It looks like the early visitors to the market tend to spend just a little bit more than the people who come later. Overall, the majority of people are spending in the $10 to $20 range.
3. What is your main reason for visiting the market?
| Answer | 8 to 10:30 am | 10:30 am to 1 pm | Total | Percentage |
| Fresh produce | 61 | 53 | 114 | 66 % |
| Baked goods & preserves | 1 | 7 | 8 | 5 % |
| Crafts | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 % |
| Support local farmers | 28 | 20 | 48 | 28 % |
| Socialize | 1 | 0 | 1 | <1 % |
| TOTALS | 92 | 82 | 174 |
Comments: The majority of people are coming primarily for fresh produce. This was the poster where people really wanted to pick more than one choice, though, and some people managed to get some extra stickers because the total number of answers on this question was higher than on the other questions. “Supporting local farmers” is a strong secondary reason for people to come to the market.
4. What, if anything, stopped you from buying more at the market?
| Answer | 8 to 10:30 am | 10:30 am to 1 pm | Total | Percentage |
| Nothing—got what I wanted | 52 | 34 | 86 | 59 % |
| Ran out of money | 11 | 11 | 22 | 15 % |
| Not going home | 4 | 8 | 12 | 8 % |
| Ran out of time | 6 | 3 | 9 | 6 % |
| Couldn’t carry more | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 % |
| Prices too high | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 % |
| Products unavailable | 3 | 9 | 12 | 8 % |
| TOTALS | 79 | 67 | 146 |
Comments: There are a lot of satisfied customers! Only a few people are saying that prices are too high. Jean Peterson, a long-time market grower in Delano, MN, says that if nobody complains about price, your prices are too low. The “products unavailable” could be meat, since a vendor wasn’t coming with meat this year and people got used to seeing meat at the farmers’ market.
5. What is the best thing about the new downtown location?
| Answer | 8 to 10:30 am | 10:30 am to 1 pm | Total | Percentage |
| Parking | 7 | 15 | 22 | 13 % |
| Atmosphere | 10 | 25 | 35 | 21 % |
| Convenience | 60 | 40 | 100 | 61 % |
| On Public Property | 4 | 4 | 8 | 5 % |
| TOTALS | 81 | 84 | 165 |
Comments: This was another question that people had a hard time deciding. “Convenience” seemed to be a catch-all. Several people mentioned that they liked the visibility of it right along a main highway. A couple of people said that they liked the old location better.
