My booth, sides, and bags, and boots, were still damp from Saturday. Market was pitifully small, and we even consolidated on the east block to look like more of a group, a decision which worked well. It made sense to lessen the setup and pull in the recycling stations, fences, and other infrastructure on the west block and it made sense to group us for better sales for the 25 or so members who did show up. It worked well for me! Customers came and I made a decent amount of sales although no one spoke up for the good-works discount of my last post. I gave it to someone who refused a plastic bag (I have some recycled ones for emergencies) and told about her efforts to bring no plastic home, and she was delighted. I gave away a few of the sale hats I ended up bringing. All of us who were there gifted each other and I came home with some wonderful things! (Photo doesn't show the pears, cake, pizza, etc.)
The farmers were also smaller in number and decided to pack and go two hours early, at 1:00 pm. They came over and told us, so our GM surveyed the members of our market about an early closure. Although it didn't rain on us during set-up, heavy rains started right about ten and didn't let up, and it was gusty too, although not at all as predicted. I knew the weather was going north as I had been tracking the weather on this wind map but even so it could have swung toward us and gotten as wild as people feared, and I was by then wet in parts and the customer flow was getting smaller. I was happy with the prospect of getting a few hours off to dry out and rest.
Ironically, of course right at two when we closed, it stopped raining and we all got to pack without a lot of extra trouble, and most people were off the lot quickly. I was the last. I have a lot of details in the way I display things and also tried to pack carefully so the wet things would not get other dryer things wet, though basically everything was damp enough that I'd have to spread all the bags and hats out in the shop for a couple of days to dry. I was still there when the zombies came.
They were so disappointed that their scheduled flash mob would have no audience. They were a little shocked at the unprecedented closure of both markets, as were the other few people who wandered down expecting to find booths. It wasn't enough economic power to support the three hours we missed, and it did start raining again right about five as I was finishing up with my labors at home, so to me the early closure was right on the fence of good/bad idea.
The process was handled well, with inclusion of member opinion and gaining of consensus, and really there was no one advocating to keep to our usual hours, although obviously all of us had taken the "Rain or Shine" maxim seriously. We were, however, about 5% of the total market members, and we were all acting in our personal self-interest for the day, as well as concern for our staff who also had to stay if we stayed. I don't think anyone second-guessed the moment too hard, although in retrospect, I wish we hadn't done it.
Saturday Market has always been so dependably there, 10-5, rain or shine. We've made such a point of that. Now we are going to add an "unless" to that. Yes, storms seem so much bigger and more destructive now, along with the access to media hype about weather. Yes, if there had been lightning with the force of the previous day, when thunder literally shook my house enough to knock things off shelves, we could have been in mortal danger. Yes, it doesn't really make sense to sell on a super wet day when no one wants to be out in the weather and we all take some losses of inventory or signs or something.
But darn it, now when people ask themselves if we will be there, they aren't going to be sure. Now it's qualified by "unless we aren't for some reason like extreme weather or ?" I guess we can make an effort to qualify it by "extreme weather only" and I do remember one other day when we closed for tons of snow (in the 1980s) and no one questioned that. I guess we do have to consider the safety of our staff and ourselves as more important than being consistent in our advertising. And with social media, we were able to announce the early closure (the zombies must not have been online) so we can notify at least a portion of the public.
But I feel like it is a slippery slope we stepped out upon. It makes me wary of decision-making for the current conditions when we don't know what will really happen. We were speculating that it was going to get way worse, but it didn't. Next summer when it is predicted to be super hot, will we forget that it is usually breezy on the blocks and can be fun? If it snows during HM, will we lose customers who will assume we will close for the day? No one can answer these questions.
Am I a traditionalist who dislikes change? Possibly in some ways. I admit it takes me awhile to embrace change and I'm suspicious of the need for it. When we talk about changing our hours (because the farmers did) I am against it; throwing out the many years we have advertised 10-5 doesn't seem smart. It took people a very long time to assimilate the 3:00 closing for farmers, even with the gradual change to 4:00 first. I still get people all the time buying bags near 3:00 who have to be advised they only have a short time to shop for produce. On the other hand, would we lose a lot if we trimmed one hour off our day's end? Would we gain more? Again, it's a gamble and we won't know the answer until we try it.
So we tried the extreme weather policy and the results are inconclusive, to my mind. About 40 people were happy, and about 40 people were not. We had to still pay for the bands we cancelled, and no doubt they were unhappy with the loss of a gig, even though not many fans would have showed, and it's dangerous to have electricity on a wet stage. There is probably not a final answer yet on how flexible our hours should be.
And while my loyalty was rewarded on Saturday, it didn't stretch to today and although it is not raining and I wouldn't be wet and maybe not even cold, my not showing up to Tuesday Market might mean Tuesdays in October might not fly next time the farmers decide to look at their cost-benefit ratio. Guess I should have gone since I am not actually getting much work done anyway (I am planning to, though, right after this...)
Last night at the City Council worksession, City Staff emphasized that one of the things coming out of the Placemaking process is that Eugene loves our historical and social traditions. They want the community gathering at the center of our downtown every Saturday. They want the spaces activated in the ways we are using them. So we had better not get any flakier. It's not just about my wet bags and hats but about holding the center for the people who need to gather. Maybe we do figure out some ways to keep us open on days when it is wet or hot: flexible covered spaces that can be used for shade or rain protection, storage or ways to limit the infrastructure we erect every week for our event, which requires so many hours of labor to set up and put away. Ways to improve our dependability, instead of get less predictable, should be part of our planning process for activating the spaces.
Planners have joked that they want us to do what we do every day of the week, to build on our success. Of course we know that if we give up the Saturday specialness, we lose a lot of what is attractive. We've tried Sunday markets. One of the reasons I am not as loyal to Tuesday is that it just doesn't draw the crowds needed for lots of booths to thrive. Still, there must be a way or two that the specialness of Saturday could be extended. A night market in August? Little pop-up markets of specialties, advertised as short events that don't need to include all of us? Let's keep thinking.
City staff said their number one trend from the process is to build on success. That's what we have to do, too, value our history and all that we are doing right, and see how we can build on that to involve more of the community. I am working to be flexible, open, and willing to test things out if they are not too high risk. Closing early was low risk, but I didn't think it was wholly successful. I'm worried about all those disappointed zombies. Maybe it will just make us all the more precious when we are there for them, though. I hope so.
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