Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Jennifer Saye (left) and Rweifen Liu shop for peaches on the opening day of the Saratoga Farmers Market in July.

Farmers Market wants to stay year-round

Some merchants say activity steals business

By Sarah Lombardo

After a late-season start, organizers of the Saratoga Farmers Market are hoping to make the market a year-round event. Gail Hayden, who operates the California Farmers Market Association, said she thinks the market, scheduled to end in late November, has been successful enough in Saratoga to warrant a try for a winter market.

"The community is really coming out and supporting the market," she said.

Hayden said she figured more than 1,500 people visit the market in any given week.

And it is that crowd that makes the farmers interested in sticking with Saratoga through the winter. "Most of the farmers have staggered their crops to accommodate a market over the years," she said. "There's going to be a good supply out there." Hayden also pointed out that since many other Bay Area markets do not stay open for winter, Saratoga's market could draw many more people.

Bill Cooper, owner of Bella Saratoga and a member of the Saratoga Business Development Council, said the biggest obstacle the project faces right now is making sure the market, held every Saturday morning in the parking lot of Saratoga High School, does not conflict with any school activities.

But Hayden said she has received a good response from the school so far.

The market moved to the high school this year from its original location on the corner of Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and Big Basin Way after the organizers, South Bay Farmers Market, said it just wasn't attracting the crowds needed. South Bay Farmers Market officials finally announced they would drop out of Saratoga earlier this year.

The announcement was upsetting to some Village merchants, who said the market brought potential buyers into the area. With the market's return through the California Farmers Market, many thought shoppers would again be drawn to the Village. But some said the market's location at the high school, on the corner of Herriman Avenue and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, is instead drawing people away from the Village.

"I can believe it," said Kookie Fitzsimmons, owner of Corinthian Flowers on the corner of Los Gatos-Saratoga Road and Big Basin Way. "I have noticed a drop in my foot-traffic. ... I think that's a legitimate observation."

But Fitzsimmons said that despite the lack of drop-in customers, business has still been brisk this season. "My regular drop-in customers have declined, but my weddings have increased," she said.

Lyndy Janes, co-owner with Sue Fox of The Workshoppe on Big Basin Way, said the market's move has hurt their business a lot.

"I would say, this year compared to last, it's cost us at least $1,000 a month, if not $1,500," Janes said. "It was a reason for people to walk through town. Now, unless [shoppers] are going to buy flowers or look at antiques, which are very specific things, people just don't wander down here anymore."

Janes and Fox said the market was intended to help merchants, but it no longer does so.

"These guys have gone down the street and into the neighborhood, so the only people they are supporting are the farmers. Whoever decided to move them [to the high school] really didn't do anybody any favors," Janes said.

Cooper said he has heard grumblings from a few Village merchants who complain that the market is taking business away from downtown, but he suggests that organized merchants can make the market work to their advantage.

"They can go down to the market and do demos and pass out literature," Cooper said. The Market Days Committee, a branch of the SBDC, offered to pass out coupons or literature at the market for local merchants, he said.

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