Back in June I noted the opening of the new Lafayette Farmer’s Market in the BART parking lot which was supposed to be open year-round, but instead will be closed until May due to poor attendance. Thanks to a reader for pointing this out. So what happened? Is it due to not knowing about the market? Or something else like higher prices or less variety? Read the reader’s note about the Lafayette market:
Just a quick email to lament the seasonal closing of the Lafayette Farmer’s Market, which was new to the city in its expanded form and location at the back parking lot of Lafayette Bart. It was really a very high quality farmer’s market with excellent vendors and prepared foods. The original intent was for it to stay open year round, but because it was so poorly patronized, they decided to close up shop for the winter and it will now reopen in April. When it opened in June, the entire parking lot was full of vendors from end to end. By the time it closed, I’d estimate about 2/3 or maybe 1/2 of the vendors remained. All of the vendors my family regularly patronized said that it just wasn’t drawing the crowd they needed to justify staying open year round. One vendor said that the city of Lafayette prohibited signage that would have encouraged people to wander in off the street. However, I never really saw a lot of advertising effort from the market’s promoters in publications or city associations that I’m familiar with, so I’m not sure what the reason is for the low turn out
I am so disappointed about this because it was really a stellar market and a great Sunday morning family activity — head and shoulders above the Orinda and Moraga markets. In my opinion, it ranked up there with the Claremont DMV market in Oakland. I thought it brought a level of sophistication to Lafayette that wasn’t there before in large part, and it made me miss living west of the tunnel a little less. I do really hope that people patronize it in droves come spring time, so we don’t lose it altogether.